New Zealand batter Henry Nicholls believes the scarcity of one-day internationals between major global tournaments has made bilateral ODI series increasingly significant, describing the ongoing series against India as “more important”.

Speaking to the media ahead of New Zealand’s training session at the Niranjan Shah Stadium on Tuesday, Nicholls addressed questions around the relevance of the 50-over format, particularly with the T20 World Cup scheduled for next month and the next ODI World Cup still around 22 months away. The left-hander added that while the volume of ODIs has reduced, several players in the New Zealand squad have recently featured in domestic List-A cricket, helping them stay attuned to the format.

“As you say, there’s not as much one-day cricket between major events, I think that makes these series even more important. A few of us have been playing some List-A cricket back home, so we have got a bit of the format under our belt. But it’s a format that we enjoy playing, so when you have those series now, they are more important than ever with a limited amount,” he said.

New Zealand narrowly fell short in the series opener, losing by four wickets despite putting India under pressure towards the end.

“From a batting point of view, we did a lot of things pretty well, and it’s a case of us being able to do them for a bit longer. Devon and I (had a) partnership at the top, if one of us is able to bat for an extended period of time. That’s always the case of one-day cricket, if you’re able to have wickets in hand, have a set batter in through to the last 15 (or) 10 overs, then it certainly extends your death (overs) period.”

When asked about lessons for New Zealand’s relatively inexperienced squad from facing senior Indian batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, Nicholls said the challenge lay in sustaining pressure. He also pointed to the impact of the one-ball rule introduced after the 34th over, noting how it made batting more difficult towards the end of New Zealand’s innings.

“That’s the challenge when you come over here and certainly as a young group even as an experienced group is when you play against players who have played that much cricket.

But also to see it firsthand in the first game and the way the guys adapted, certainly from a bowling point of view, bowling to those guys and finding ways to try and put them under pressure. If we are able to do some of those things even as an inexperienced side, then the nature of cricket is (that) if you're able to take wickets, you're able to put teams under pressure.

"We saw at the end of our innings (as well), the ball was quite a lot darker and a lot softer as well, which can make it harder to get away.

That is why they brought the rule in terms of choosing one ball to make it a little bit harder around the death stage. That's certainly something to keep in mind if you're in a batting team (first) and (if) you're on top, then maybe it won't be as easy at the end to score as much. So maybe take it on a little bit earlier,” he added.