Indian Test great Rahul Dravid has branded New Zealand as serious contenders for the Cricket World Cup 2015, due to their pace attack.
Lauding Tim Southee specially, Dravid also said that he believes New Zealand have got an extremely good pace attack, adding that that is why one looks and them and thinks that they are one of the serious contenders.
Dravid felt Southee's control of the Yorker in pressure situations was a key as the experienced right-arm pace bowler was entrusted with leading the New Zealand attack, Stuff.co.nz reported.
The former Indian skipper said that he believes that is one of the things about Southee, adding that that's a critical ball to be able to bowl at the back end and they all know that that's the obvious thing, but claimed that it's an extremely hard ball to execute under pressure.
Meanwhile, former South Africa skipper Graeme Smith said that the rapidly improving New Zealand would be a team others would want to avoid in the knockout stages of the tournament, which starts next month in New Zealand and Australia.
Smith praised Southee's ability to swing the new ball and also to be effective at the death.
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Dravid and Smith also liked the way the New Zealand pace attack was complemented by quality spinners in Nathan McCullum and Daniel Vettori.
Smith believes Vettori's return to action was a key to New Zealand's chances. He said that the veteran spinner is a difficult guy to rotate the strike, so he almost squeezes and squeezes the batsman into making mistakes.
Smith claimed that Vettori has been a great performer, certainly in the short format, for a long period of time, had his injuries, but believes that the spinner is key for this tournament.
Smith also said that he believes New Zealand are certainly a team to look out for in this tournament, adding that it's a very exciting team and believes it is a team that other teams would say that they don't really want to come up against them in a knockout game.