‘Typical Indian wicket’ awaits Kiwis, as India look to bounce back in 2nd Test after rare home defeat last week
The Indian think-tank inspect the pitch in Pune on Tuesday; (right) Rohit Sharma. Pics/AFP
As rare as defeats in home Tests might be in recent years, India don’t exactly find themselves in uncharted territory. For the second time this year alone, they have fallen 0-1 behind after the first game.
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In January, they were undone by the sweeping and reverse-sweeping brilliance of Ollie Pope, who helped translate a 190-run deficit into a stunning 28-run victory with a monumental 196. India bounced back from that unexpected Hyderabad reversal to carve out a 4-1 triumph despite key personnel dropping off like autumn leaves; it’s precisely that spirit they must now summon after the eight-wicket loss to New Zealand in Bangalore.
Star India player Virat Kohli is all set to bat during a training session in Pune yesterday. Pics/AFP
India paid the penalty in the Garden City for one bad session, when they were bowled out for 46 in the first innings. They did salvage pride with a blazing second-innings effort of 462, but a target of 107 wasn’t going to seriously test the Kiwis despite the first-over dismissal of skipper Tom Latham. Over the next five days at the MCA International Stadium, from Thursday, India will spare no effort in showing up the Bangalore result for what it was — an aberration.
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Typical Indian wicket
Unlike at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium where seam and bounce were pronounced factors, Pune will signal a return to type — head coach Gautam Gambhir called it a ‘typical Indian wicket’. The black soil-strip is expected to assist slow turn, which could neutralise New Zealand’s tall seamers and bring India’s versatile spinners more into the equation.
India have a mixed record here, beaten out of sight on a spiteful turner by Australia in 2017, but crushing South Africa by an innings two and a half years later when Virat Kohli registered his highest Test score, 254 not out. Kohli’s last Test hundred came 15 months back, in Port of Spain; he has gone 10 innings without a century but hasn’t been out of form, as his second-innings 70 in Bangalore reiterated. More than anyone else, Kohli will be mindful of the need to rediscover the art of erecting tall monuments, as much for the rest of this series as for the tour of Australia that is imminent.
Team India will bank on spinners R Ashwin (left) and Ravindra Jadeja to provide crucial breakthroughs
Sundar in for Kuldeep?
The return of Shubman Gill after a stiff neck kept him out of the Bangalore skirmishes will relegate one of Sarfaraz Khan or KL Rahul to the sidelines. There is also the possibility of India bringing in Washington Sundar for Kuldeep Yadav though like the left-arm wrist-spinner, the offie from Chennai too takes the ball away from the left-hander. Gambhir referenced the ‘control’ Washington can bring more than once in his press conference on Wednesday. Whether it can be construed as a hint that he will play his first Test in more than three and a half years, or whether it was a throwaway line, remains to be seen.
The faster bowlers did the trick for New Zealand with 17 wickets in the first Test, but in vastly different conditions, they will bank on the various spinning options in their ranks. Latham insisted that New Zealand have put Bangalore behind them; the confidence derived from that grand coup is only bound to make them even more dangerous.
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