The Kiwis are set to embark on their winter season to India for a three-match Test series, this will also be India’s last home Test series for the season. The Kiwis arrive here after a 2-0 defeat against Sri Lanka; though, now, the real battle is yet to start. Indian Team on the other hand has a stellar home-Test record and New Zealand has been rather woefully weak on Indian soil, having managed just 2 Test wins in their last 36 matches played in the subcontinent. While they won the very first World Test Championship title by beating India at the end of 2019, they have rarely breathed down the neck of victory in India itself.
Tom Latham’s ‘No Fear’ Approach Against India
Tom Latham, who has taken over as skipper recently, announced that their intention is to play aggressively and in a free state of mind against the hosts. Having carried forward 18 successive series wins, India rides high on a great home record. However, they have resorted to a strategy altogether different from what one would expect in spin-friendly conditions, particularly such instances as highlighted in the second Test against Bangladesh. But more than two days of rain did not seem to deter India from pulling off the win after breaking all records for the fastest 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 runs during their explosive first innings. They put up a score of 285/9 in just 34.4 overs against Bangladesh’s 233 all out, winning the match by seven wickets.
“From my point of view it’s about trying to continue doing the good stuff we’ve been doing,” Latham said. “It’s an exciting challenge going over to India and once we can go over there hopefully [we can] play with a bit of freedom, bit of no fear and try and take it to them. If we do that hopefully gives ourselves a good chance.“
Playing Aggressively: The New Strategy Of New Zealand
“Think in India we’ve seen teams that have done well out there in the past have been quite aggressive towards them, especially with the bat they’ve looked to play a few shots, but also put them under pressure which is really important over there rather than sitting and waiting for something to happen. We’ll decide on how we want to play when we get over there, but guys have got plans around how they like to approach things and hopefully we can fine tune those.”
The first Test of the series against New Zealand will be played in Bengaluru on October 16, while the second match will take place on October 24 at Pune. Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium is set to play the third Test from November 1. This will be their last Test series.
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