New Zealand head coach Gary Stead on Friday said that beating India in home Tests in spin-friendly conditions is one of the biggest challenges in world cricket and he is under no illusions that Virat Kohli’s team will play a crucial role in the upcoming tour. How difficult will it be to face?
New Zealand is set to tour India from November 17, just after the T20 World Cup. Both sides will play three T20 matches followed by a two-match Test series.
“It is one of the biggest challenges of world cricket, going to India and winning a Test match. We are certainly not under the illusion of how hard it will be,” Stead told reporters.
Both the teams are currently in UAE for the T20 World Cup.
India is in the same position as us, they are in the World Cup. They’ve spent a long time on the road and I’m not sure what kind of team they’ll make, but we know they’ll be strong whatever they put up against us.
The 49-year-old coach feels it will be imperative for the touring party to have a clear plan for navigating the turning track.
They have good spinners, they know how to play in this situation, so I think one thing for us is really the way we play, the way we try and score and attack against their bowlers. do, will be really clear. So, if it’s a turning wicket we don’t just become sitting ducks.
This will be the first meeting between the two teams in the longest format since the World Test Championship final in June, which was won by New Zealand.
It is always exciting to go to India and play Test series. We obviously played him in the World Test Championship and I guess this is the start of the second round. He said that there is always a big challenge for India so this is a really important series for us.
The Black Caps will travel with five spinners, including the experienced trio of Ajaz Patel, Will Somerville and Mitchell Santner. He will be backed by young Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips.
We have obviously picked a strong spin friendly type team. Five spinners or five people who have the ability to spin the ball.”
Stead said the fact that New Zealand’s premier spinners don’t have much match time ahead of the crucial Test series will be one of the challenges for India, but backed them to come good.
Yes, this is one of our challenges. They are still training which has been great. Even with little bubbles or even just coming in, I think traps and stuff like that. It’s yes, it’s hard on them,” Stead said.
Hopefully those are the 10 or so days that they’ll be there before we start. This will give them a chance to get used to it appropriately as well as come back to experiences they have had in the past.
It’s not going to be completely foreign to them. They are not visiting the subcontinent for the first time.
Asked whether this is the best chance for New Zealand to beat India on the basis of current form, Stead said: “Until we get there, it’s hard to know if we’ve really reached those conditions.” We have gone to what we know we have got one Test in Jaipur and one in. Mumbai, they may be in a slightly different position.
Sometimes Mumbai can bounce and sometimes seam a little. But then again, it’s hard to know until we get there and see what’s in front of us. We go to every series and we try and work out our plans to say this is the way we were going to try to play cricket.”
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