Black Caps need to play smart: Williamson

Flexibility will be key if New Zealand are to take out the World T20 title in India, Black Caps skipper Kane Williamson believes.

New Zealand won't abandon the attractive brand of attacking cricket which has been their recent hallmark under retired skipper Brendon McCullum, but new leader Williamson says they'll be careful in adjusting their approach to differences in wickets and opposition.

"We need to be smart and look to try to play the best brand that's suited to the conditions and the sides we come up against over here," he said.

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"It's important we adapt. We've been playing some good T20 cricket but at the same time, you want to play smart.

"Over here, cricket can be quite different to our conditions and we're fully aware of that."

The Black Caps play warm-up games in Mumbai against Sri Lanka on Thursday and England on Saturday before their World T20 opener against India on Monday in Nagpur.

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Williamson says while there's no doubt India are tournament favourites, he's confident New Zealand have the players with the capacity to push them.

"That aggressive brand we've been playing has been really effective for us," he said.

"We didn't set out to play a specific brand, we set out to try and win cricket games and we thought that was the best way to do it."

Williamson said the expectation was for spin-friendly surfaces in India, and he was expecting big things from Black Caps spinners Mitchell Santner, Nathan McCullum and Ish Sodhi.

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"We've got some exciting young spinners, and they'll be looking forward to getting involved.

"But I have no doubt that seam bowling will play a big part as well, and we certainly have some class seamers in our line-up," he said.

"You come over to India, and you assume the ball will spin on some of these surfaces. But in saying that, you do play on some surfaces that don't and I guess it's reading conditions when you turn up to different grounds."