In the last one year, India have not lost a Test, whereas New Zealand are coming off a forgettable tour of South Africa where their batsmen struggled against the hosts’ bowlers.
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A formidable Indian cricket team is expected to dominate the visiting New Zealand by revelling in home conditions in its historic 500th Test match, which will herald the beginning of a long 13-match home season, here from Thursday.
“The New Zealand team have done really well”, Kumble said.
“Home advantage is what one likes to avail in a Test. India have quality spinners, but it doesn’t mean I should create a pitch where the ball starts turning from Day One”, said Shiv Kumar.
Meanwhile, a report in Indian Express quotes quoting Anil Kumble saying, “We will be closely monitoring his progress with the doctors, and then we will take a call about his fitness after this Test”.
“We are looking at six months but from a team’s perspective, we are focussing on this match for now”, he said.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can carry the Zika, dengue and chikungunya viruses, is prevalent in India, and is most active during the monsoon season from June to September.
If India goes to the top of the rankings, it would be doing so for the third time this year and fourth overall.
“We have not demanded any pitch”.
“The weather is not in our control but we have generally seen slow and low wickets here, like it was in the ODI against South Africa previous year”.
Kumble, however, pointed that the Kanpur pitch has traditionally been spinner-friendly.
The legendary all-rounder, still the only player to have scored 4,000 runs and taken 400 wickets, said Test cricket had changed radically in the two decades since he retired, praising Kohli for his attacking batsmanship. You playing so much cricket and it is all about adapting to the challenges that come you way.
Hesson knows his team will be playing in some tough conditions, and wants his team to adapt. We have also discussed the same. The fact that they have three spinners (each being different from another), yes we watched them, at least I watched the two spinners out of three in T20 World Cup where they played a significant role in the team.
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Their batting is not in apple-pie order either, with Martin Guptill repeatedly failing to replicate his limited-overs heroics in the Test arena and Luke Ronchi’s brisk century in the warm-up match in Delhi intensifying their selection dilemma. Starting from 1932 till today, there have been great players who have contributed this great legacy of 499 Tests. “For me, being part of the Indian team was special and a great honour”. Each of them has looked to raise the bar and this team is no different. They have won all their last three Test series, against Sri Lanka, South Africa and West Indies.
