Ahead of India’s big clash against New Zealand at the 2021 T20 World Cup, Wasim Jaffer shared a comical meme on Twitter on seeing the choice of umpire for the game. England’s Richard Kettleborough alongside Marais Erasmus will be the two on-field umpires for the big clash at the Dubai International Stadium.
With both teams losing their opening game in the tournament to Pakistan, this clash is a virtual quarter-final. While the winner will take a big step towards reaching the semi-final, the loser will find itself on the brink of elimination and hoping for miracles.
Jaffer’s tweet pointing out Kettleborough as one of the umpires will only cause more nerves in the Indian fanbase. He shared a hilarious image alongside the names of the umpire for the game.
He captioned his post on the micro-blogging site as, “Happy Halloween Indian fans.
Kettleborough has been the umpire in some of India’s recent heartbreaks in ICC tournaments. He was officiating the 2014 T20 World Cup final, 2015 Cricket World Cup semi-final, 2017 Champions Trophy Final, and the 2019 Cricket World Cup semi-final.
The Men in Blue lost each of those four games and will have to break the ‘Kettleborough jinx’ to get over the line and keep their T20 World Cup campaign on track.
Moreover, Virat Kohli’s side also needs to rewrite history and improve their record against New Zealand in global tournaments. India have not beaten the BlackCaps in an ICC tournament for 18 years with the last victory coming under Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy in 2003.
The two teams have each other twice in the T20 World Cup with the Kiwis emerging victorious on both occasions. Kane Williamson’s side also beat India in the 2019 World Cup semi-final and the 2021 World Test Championship final.
