- By Vishal Pushkar
- Tue, 20 Jan 2026 06:51 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
India vs New Zealand: After besting India in the ODI format, the Blackcaps face another stiff challenge against an in-form Indian T20I side for the five-match series starting January 21. In an exclusive conversation with Jagran English, New Zealand's James (Jimmy) Neesham talked about his life as a freelance Cricketer in different T20 tournaments around the world, the factor of 'confrontation' for New Zealand players. Neesham, who has been named in the 15-member squad for the five-match T20I series, also named key players who can emerge as the biggest threats in the series from both sides.
Follow the detailed conversation here:
Question: Jimmy, playing for 10 different teams across 7 different tournaments and then 2 in different countries and it has all, all this has been done in the last couple of years. How has life been, you know, living straight out of the suitcase?
Answer: Yeah, it's good. It's obviously what you sign up for when you go on the freelancing circuit.
It's an incredible, you know, amount of opportunity out there for Tiffany cricketers at the moment to make an incredible living and, you know, I've been very fortunate to be in demand and in a lot of franchises and, yeah, have some success and some failures and, yeah, you know, I'm getting towards the back end of my career now or the middle back end. So, yeah, it's been great to just try and play as much cricket as possible, you know, get involved with a lot of franchises and a lot of competitions, yeah, it's a very cool lifestyle that, you know, is afforded to T20 cricketers in the current day and age. So, yeah, it's been great to take advantage of that.
Question: New Zealand players have a reputation for being the nice guys. So, do you think that takes away the factor of confrontation when you play against other teams?
Answer: No, I don't think so. I think, you know, the nature of the global game at the moment is that everyone plays together in a lot of different competitions and, you know, you get to know guys and I sort of liken it to, you know, if you're playing PlayStation against your brother, you want to beat them more than anything rather than, you know, some random other person. So, yeah, the friendliness is there off the field, but I think the competitive instinct on the field is just as strong as ever, and, you know, sometimes you come up against guys that you spend a lot of time with. So, you'll play, you know, an IPL game against another New Zealander or, you know, an ILT or 100 game and you sort of circle their name on the team sheet and go, yeah, I'd love to have him for a couple of sixes or I'd love to get him out and, yeah, it always adds to the banter, you know, when you do come back together again, you know, for an international assignment.
Question: Congratulations on making the squad for the T20s in India. You, being a pace bowling all-rounder, will be vying for a spot in the XI, but there will be other contenders like there's Glenn Phillips, there's Daryl Mitchell, and there's Tim Robinson as well. Earlier, it was between you and Corey Anderson. So, how do you see the competition between your mates in the national side?
Answer: Well, I think we're all very different cricketers for a start, and play very different roles. So, you know, there's not a whole lot of competition individually from that perspective. I think one of the best things we've done over the last few years as a New Zealand cricket team is read conditions really well and, you know, read the wicket.
And I think when you look at our middle order or lower middle order spot there, you know, 5, 6, 7, 8, you've got, you know, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner, myself, and even, you know, younger guys recently have come in like Zach Foulkes and Nathan Smith. So, you know, there's a lot of variety of player and in how you want to fill those spots. And if you think the ball's going to swing or spin or bounce, you know, you're going to have different options that best suit that ability.
But most importantly, you know, all those guys can come out with power and finish it off in the end with the bat in the last five hours of the innings. So, yeah, it's a bit of an embarrassment of riches at the moment in the middle order for New Zealand cricket. But yeah, we'll have to, you know, spend a bit of time during the series to work on the combinations and see how those best fit in the subcontinent.
And whoever does get the nod, obviously, we'll have the full backing of the squad.
Question: Who do you think will be the biggest threat, according to you, for New Zealand in the series?
Answer: It could be multiple. You can say out multiple. You can tell me multiple names as well. It works fine. Well, I just saw footage of Glenn Phillips batting left-handed in a T20 back in New Zealand and hitting fours and sixes.
So, that seems pretty threatening. You know, the guys at the top of the order, Tim Siefert and Finn Allen, have both been extremely explosive over their time in the Big Bash. Adam Milne's obviously going really well in the SA20. So, we've got a lot of guys that are in form, a lot of guys that are performing really well at the moment. Hopefully, we can all carry that through when we meet up in India.
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Question: Anyone from the Indian team?
Answer: I played with Sanju Samson at the Rajasthan Royals. He was an incredibly impressive cricketer. So, you know, I know there's been a bit of, you know, back and forth at the top of the order for India over the last few months. I'm not sure, you know, who's in those spots at the moment. But having, you know, Abhishek Sharma as well looks like an incredibly dangerous batsman.
So, you know, whoever turns out for the end, there's obviously no shortage of quality in the Indian setup. So, yeah, I'm sure that whoever does make the final 11 will have to do our homework on it and come up with some plans for how best to combat that.