McCullum happy to announce unchanged starting team

2015 World Cup

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum says, barring any last minute mishaps, that they would stick with the same starting team, for the World Cup match against Afghanistan on Sunday, that has carried them in the first four matches of the tournament.

The have looked impressive in their four matches so far at the mega event, which they are co-hosting with Australia. After racking up a convincing win in their opener against Sri Lanka, they have beaten Scotland, England and Australia to underline the credentials as potential champions.

McCullum, who himself is in good form at the top of the batting order, feels all the players in the 15-man squad have had sufficient game-time and could come into the team when called upon.

The Black Caps skipper said: "If we look at the campaign as not just in isolation of the World Cup but also the games leading into it, over the course of 13 games we've been able to get a fair bit of game time into a lot of guys.

"We've settled on this as our No 1, but I'm confident if injuries do come about we've got the experience and personnel on the sideline that can step up and perform a role.

"The nature of the games we've had so far haven't been overly taxing in terms of the physical demands on our bowlers. It still gives them a good chance to get into their work and we think this is the best XI for us at this point in time."

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