Mumbai- A first ever series loss at home to New Zealand notwithstanding, India still have the “wood on us” while playing on turning wickets, said Kiwis spinner Ajaz Patel in Mumbai on Wednesday.
New Zealand have outplayed India on all fronts in their backyard so far in the three-Test series, particularly in the spin department as they head into the third and final match starting here on Friday with an unassailable lead of 2-0.
While New Zealand hammered India in a rain-truncated opening Test at Bengaluru by eight wickets, exposing their shortcomings on a challenging pitch at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, the world No 2 side was given a taste of its own medicine on a spin-friendly track in Pune in the second Test, which the hosts lost by 113 runs.
Ahead of the final Test at the Wankhede Stadium, another spin-friendly track is in making despite the struggles of the Indian batters.
Patel hoped that New Zealand, who have an opportunity to inflict a 3-0 whitewash on India, would need to continue to make all the right moves despite the hosts being more adept in playing on such tracks.
“India still have the wood on us when it comes to playing on turning wickets, and traditionally, the Indian batters have done well in turning surfaces,” Patel told the media after New Zealand’s training session.
“Obviously, they haven’t had maybe as much success as they would have liked in this series so far but they’re certainly an opposition that are very, very skilled and not the easiest to come up against.”
“Their skill set is very vast and for us as a spin group, especially it’s about being able to control what we can control and making sure that we can apply pressure for long periods of time and making sure that we’re delivering the best balls on a given surface,” he added.
New Zealand’s accuracy and recentness in attack, both with the bat and the ball, has been the feature of their first-ever series win in India and Patel acknowledged that the visitors will need to stick to the basics.
“It is really about continuing to challenge them. As a batter it’s not easy out there when you’re facing a ball that’s turning as much, and so it’s about us making sure we put the balls in good areas for long periods of time,” he said.
“On the flip side, India have got phenomenal spinners so our batters are trying to do the opposite and they’re trying to create opportunities to score runs,” he added.
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