NZ are a mighty team, and nobody knows it better than South Africa's coach

With their low-key profile but high-performing team, it's no longer surprising for New Zealand to be considered potential champions at Cricket World Cups, according to South Africa white-ball coach Rob Walter. And he would know.

For the last seven years, Walter has been based in New Zealand, and coached Otago, Central Districts and New Zealand A, after relocating from South Africa to further his work opportunities. He's had a first-hand view of the pipeline of one the smallest populations in cricket with some of the richest resources, and knows that the talent pool New Zealand now have has been in the making for a long time.

"They've gone beyond the time where people couldn't understand why they achieved the results they have. They're a very good side now and you don't see many holes in their make-up," Walter said in Pune, ahead of South Africa's match against New Zealand. "They have a lot of depth in different positions and for the most part, highly experienced cricketers who've played a lot and achieved a lot."

New Zealand's array of options are evident in their squad selection, which included two players who were still recovering from injury - Kane Williamson and Tim Southee - when it was named in September. New Zealand have carried Williamson through a second injury, have not even needed Southee and have, most recently, coped without Mark Chapman. For their next match, they may also be missing Lockie Ferguson, who left the field in their last match with an Achilles' injury and underwent a fitness test at Tuesday's training, but even that won't derail them.

In Williamson's absence, they have Tom Latham to captain and Will Young and Rachin Ravindra as two of the top three. James Neesham replaced Chapman and nearly beat Australia and if Ferguson can't play, Southee, the second most capped player in the squad, will get a game. To Walter's point, even in a squad of 15, New Zealand have depth and that is the result of an excellent domestic structure. "That's probably the strength of this New Zealand side, it's not easy to get a game, let alone a World Cup squad," he said.

He cited Daryl Mitchell, who made his domestic debut in December 2011 and earned his first international cap eight years later, as an example of how tough it is to break into their national side. "If you look at a guy like Daryl Mitchell, it's an indication that in the New Zealand system, you have to play a lot of domestic cricket to eventually get a shot at internationals. I was exposed to Daryl from day one when I started coaching in New Zealand and it's only in the last two years that he's really become an unbelievable international cricketer."

Mitchell has been playing ODIs since 2021, and has five centuries including against India at this World Cup. With a batting average of 51.80, Walter believes Mitchell is performing at such a high-level both because he was prepared for it, and because he knows if he doesn't, New Zealand could have a ready replacement. "In New Zealand, when a player steps in [to the national side] there's pressure from beneath and it inspires the incumbents to raise their game," Walter said.

You can see that in the New Zealand squad. When Williamson returns to full fitness, they can choose between five players - Devon Conway, Ravindra, Young, Mitchell and Williamson - to make up the top four and all of them have runs to their name at this tournament. Apart from Ravindra, they each have more than a decade's worth of domestic experience but what Ravindra has is stand-out talent.

Walter saw that himself when was New Zealand A coach for the tour of India in September last year. Ravindra scored one fifty in the three-match unofficial ODIs and was the third highest wicket-taker in the first-class series - a decent return but perhaps not enough to suggest he would shoot the lights out at a World Cup a year later to everyone - besides Walter. "I am not very surprised to see the results he has delivered," he said. "He works hard on his game, a lot harder than a lot of cricketers I know."

Will all this experiential-knowledge mean that Walter will also have the inside-track on how to beat New Zealand? Walter isn't quite so bullish about that.

"There's some local knowledge with their players and I've worked with a fair number of them and [teams I have coached have] played against the majority of them," Walter said. "It's just a bunch of quality cricketers and if it were it's just as easy as doing your scouting and prep against them, it would be an easy game. But it's not, they've been playing great cricket. We'll have to see how a bit of local knowledge stacks up."