Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh says captain Kohli and coach Kumble must change trend of rank turners Senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh feels captain Virat Kohli and chief coach Anil Kumble have got a chance to usher in a new era where Indian cricket teams will not require “rank turners” to win matches as the long-used tactic is beginning to boomerang on the side.
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New Zealand’s tour of India kicks off with first Test at Green Park stadium in Kanpur on September 22 and caps off on October 29 with an ODI at Visakhapatnam.
Murali Vijay has been the most consistent opening batsman for India in Tests in recent history and though he played just two matches (one of which was nearly completely washed out) in the Test series against the West Indies, he is unlikely to sit out if he is fit.
However, Neesham, who has not played in global cricket since the recurrence of a back injury last November, is expected to be fit for the second Test, which is starting from September 30.
“I just think that we have to keep promoting wickets where bowlers can bowl quick. Mitch Santner and Ish Sodhi could prove to be a handful”, he said. You don’t get a player of his calibre every now and then.
It was nearly two years ago that Sodhi and Craig joined left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori in his last Test as New Zealand crushed Pakistan by an innings and 80 runs.Craig bagged 10 wickets in the game as the spinners together snared 15 Pakistan wickets.
“It will be important to play it match by match, series by series”. Go back even further to Sydney in 1985 (John Bracewell, Stephen Boock, Vaughan Brown) and Hyderabad in Pakistan in 1984 (Bracewell, Boock and Evan Gray) when a trio of spin didn’t win for the tourists.
Pacer Ishant Sharma has been ruled out of the first Test against New Zealand due to a bout of chikungunya.
The lanky all-rounder played his last Test in Brisbane against Australia, that didn’t end quite well for him. The home batsmen also made their intentions clear against the New Zealand slow men. It played its first Test in 1932. Its very easy to say I will go with four bowlers or five but I as a captain would like to see the kind of pitch before picking the team.
Lee also blamed the benign Indian pitches that has led to a drastic dip in quality of fast bowlers in sub-continent.
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However, the trio recently featured in a warmup contest in Delhi and was way below par conceding 464-8 against Mumbai.
