New Zealand’s players Mark Chapman and Mitchell Santner leave after a training session ahead of the first Test cricket match between India and New Zealand, at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Karnataka, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (PTI Photo)
A faint smile escaped Tom Latham when he was asked about the weather that greeted him in Bangalore. The grim skies, the rippling drizzle and the chilly air would have made him feel closer to Christchurch, his hometown, rather than the heat and sun he had experienced in past tours to these shores. “Yeah certainly wasn’t expecting the weather that we’ve had over the last couple of days since arriving here. Yeah, a bit like home,” he says, in a cheery tone.
A bit like home, but not quite a home, he would know from his previous expeditions to the country. The past daunts—New Zealand have won just two Tests in 36 encounters in India. The last one—in 1988—arrived four years before he was born. Or for that matter any of his colleagues. The present intimidates—the batting talisman Kane Williamson is ruled out of the game, the lead bowler Tim Southee is riding a slump, the tearaway Ben Sears picked up an injury, the spin-stock looks undercooked and Sri Lanka had just clean-swept them. Latham tried to pick positives, like the defiance they showed in the second innings in the second Test, or the fight they displayed in the first, the familiarity of his players with the Indian conditions, et al.
But the reality remains—New Zealand arrive as underdogs, the label beneath which it had camouflaged a ruthlessly efficient team in the past. This time, it’s real. Not because they are an ordinary side but because their opponents are extraordinary. They are a considerable upgrade on Bangladesh, but would rank below England in the mettle-metre.
Rainy day indoor net sessions in Bengaluru 🏏#INDvNZ #CricketNation
📸 BCCI pic.twitter.com/VTDyb59VS0— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) October 15, 2024
The most vexing concern is spin, both bowling spin and facing it, the old demons, the two requisites required to win Tests in India. In Sri Lanka, their ensemble spin cast produced just 14 wickets at an average of 89.98. The left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel was the most successful among them, but he has lost some of the snap and bite that priced wickets en route to his 10-wicket haul in Mumbai. Mitchell Santner’s red-ball value has become a casualty of his enormous white-ball spread; Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips are glorified part-timers. Mark Chapman and Michael Bracewell, whose off-spinning uncle John starred in his country’s last victory in India, barely invoke dread. It would either require a turner, which India would unlikely provide, or hideous batting for them to restore pride. Or both, They were toothless against Sri Lanka when it mattered, and only found their dentures when the game was gone.
The batsmen, for all their exposure to Asian conditions and IPL-raised familiarity, haven’t quite reined in the turning ball. Rachin, with Bangalore forebears, expeditions to CSK high performance centre and Rural Development Trust to hone his spin game, looked the resolutest in Sri Lanka. But his record against spinners in Asia is unflattering—27.85 in eight innings. Most baffling has been the slide of Devon Conway. His career has gone quieter after the prolific start, his last hundred coming 20 innings ago. A progressive route earned him a half-century in his last innings in Sri Lanka. In Asia, he averages just 31. Latham has a healthier 41, and would be New Zealand’s batting axis. The lower middle-order is fragile too, with Tom Blundell and Daryll Mitchell unable to recreate their gusto in Asia and Glenn Phillips erratic as his average of 35 suggests.
“It’s a massive honour and a huge privilege”
Hear from skipper Tom Latham ahead of the team’s departure for India 🇮🇳 🏟 #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/NFCaSvhdSz
— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) October 10, 2024
Nonetheless, they possess stroke-makers who could inflict damage when they get going. The 360 they posted at a run-rate of 4.40 in the last innings in Sri Lanka could be a sign of turnaround. Latham believes as much. “You know, we did a lot of good stuff there. We sort of changed our approach a little bit in terms of how we played and just the way things unfolded,” he said.
Their brightest hope remains their fast bowlers. They are not the most experienced ones, but on cloudy days with assistance from the surface, they can interrogate India’s batsmen. The six-feet-four-inches tall William O’Rourke, New Zealand’s best bowler in Sri Lanka, could reproduce a Kyle Jamieson-like effect. He makes the ball leap off good length, has a deceptive bouncer and jags the balls into the right handers. Matt Henry has slippery pace, has experienced India and has resurrected his red-ball career with 17 scalps in his last two Tests.
If Southee could rediscover his devastating best, on a ground where he grabbed a seven-for a decade ago, New Zealand could gruel India’s batsmen for the Australia tour. His career is at crossroads—his meagre haul of eight wickets have cost him 73 runs apiece, and he is no longer an automatic pick. Latham, as much as he backed his colleague, admitted that he could be in the fray only if New Zealand picked three seamers. His decision to relinquish captaincy was to revive his career, his wicket-haul in this format just 18 short of 400.
So New Zealand land in the toughest place on the cricket map with the least ideal set of circumstances. But the Sri Lanka blemish and the horrific record in India aside, they have been a side that had displayed more pluck and resilience than more accomplished sides. If they don’t, three weeks could drag along like three whole months.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 15-10-2024 at 20:41 IST
