***Official New Zealand in India Nov-Dec 2021 Thread***

[Burner]

Drop Rahane for Iyer imo. He's had his time.

 

[Flem274*]

Rahane is not several levels above our tailenders at the moment

Yeah I'd drop him for Iyer. I know Indian posters have been Iyer-skeptical but he's shown he can take on world class bowlers on home decks. I'm aware he has technicial flaws but you can hide him at #6 or #5 while you sand off the edges. With the major 3 deciding to all be bad at once I think India's hand has been forced.

Full strength India (home) should look something like

Rohit (c)
Rahul
Pujara (I know, but he did look coming ok in England)
Kohli
Iyer
Pant (wk)
Jadeja
Ashwin
Axar
Any of the quicks who are good and about each others standard (or even Shardul for the solid medium fast bowling and the #batdeep meme would be funny)
Bumrah

 

[sunilz]

This Test series deserves a sub-forum more than Ashes ?

 

[Moss]

Kohli, Pujara and Rahane are several levels above all those other batsmen you've named, and I've seen all except Bharat play. Mayank and Gill will only be more exposed by more pace and bounce because big gates and angled bats are suicide.

Shreyas on a bouncier deck sounds good. NZ can finally hit him in the face.

NZ will be absolutely frothing for more pace and bounce in the deck. Why do you think India fail in NZ? Stylistically NZ are a middle ground between Australia and England. The Kanpur deck was almost perfect, because it exacerbated the difference between the two spinner sets and negated the height and movement of Southee and KJ as much as possible. You want to wheel one of these out again. It almost worked.

Really fast turn just brings everyone into the game, like a green deck in SENA against Sri Lanka (sorry Sri Lanka).

I think Shri’s clarified that by more bounce he means enough for the spinners to really be in business, but not enough that the quicks will be that much more dangerous. Mumbai more of a classic turner than this one. Yes it may bring NZ’s spinners into the game, but (especially having watched the England series earlier in the year), it very rarely backfires on India; Pune 2017 the exception and possibly the template- need an innings like Smith’s and a bowling effort like O’Keefe’s.

Well as NZ played this game, there are serious (immediate-term) concerns for mine. Taylor, Nicholls and Blundell don’t seem to have worked out any way of scoring against spin, think they were shown up by Sommers and Ravindra today (Watling is badly missed on this tour). Bowling wise I’m not going to be too hard on the spinners because they’re short of match practice, but they aren’t putting the ball regularly enough in the same spot to be the kind of persistent threat you need to take 20 wickets cheaply.

 

[honestbharani]

NZ get that same pitch too. India came very close to being screwed by two pace bowlers on this slow grubber. Ajaz's MO is troll breaks wicket to wicket, so if he's got the rust from his system a more bowling friendly deck will just exacerbate the middle order issues both these sides are grappling with.

Its not exactly more bowling friendly though. Kohli smashed a double ton on the same track England could not handle Ash and Jaddu. Its a pitch with true bounce and turn, like Chennai second test against England. So batsmen can trust the bounce and the turn, even if it is a lot, will be consistent. That is where the straight breaks take full effect and guys with Ajaz's release may struggle coz of his height.

KJ is very much Ambrose reincarnate though. Even on surfaces where he cant take wickets in a bundle, he wont give away many runs. The fact that he can bat as well as he can, is the absolute beastliness of having him in the side and what makes it a cheat code.

That, and the fact that the guy actually swings the ball. I guess if you can learn to get the kookaburra to swing, the Dukes and SG must feel like a treat in your hands.

 

[Shri]

Point stands. Think about it, when hosting a SENA side, do you want the ball grubbing or bouncing?

Bouncing. If it is a sandpit like this game, we can lose test matches if we lose the toss like we did vs england.

 

[srbhkshk]

Absolute brilliance by the youngster.

**** NZ though, let us win a game for once you *****.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Hey buddy we gave you the T20s.

 

[silentstriker]

The what?

 

[srbhkshk]

Hey buddy we gave you the T20s.

Not the one that I remember

 

[Anil]

all square going to mumbai, good save new zealand!

 

[sunilz]

all square going to mumbai, good save new zealand!

Why am I getting Gabba vibe from Indian fans ? Why are we not pessimistic ?

In other news Dravid rewards curator with Rs 35000

 

[loterry1994]

India did well to get it close especially after lunch and New Zealand tail did well to survive in the end. Both had big chances to win it. Was pretty surprising play lasted nearly the whole day.

 

[pomnotenglish]

Congrats to both sides for giving us a fantastic game of cricket and kudos to NZ for hanging on for the draw.
However, as a greedy NZ cricket fan who wants more & more from the team I wonder what would be their plan for India from Batsman no. 5 onwards because none of them seem to have got a hang of the spinning ball.
As others have pointed out on this thread, probably this is good time to also start developing pitches in NZ which are spinner-friendly so that you can truly be a world-class team that is comfortable against both pace and spin. This will not happen overnight but in the coming years I hope to see such spin bowlers coming out from NZ .
If I take the example of my own country, India, we were very poor against pace in the 90s and even uptill the middle of the first decade of the 2000s (esp. overseas). That has changed gradually over time and today we do have world-class pacers and next-gen pacers knocking on the doors of the Indian team.
Anyway, Mumbai awaits and I hope to see better captaincy from KW in Mumbai. Go Kiwis.

 

[OverratedSanity]

NZ will have a great chance to steal the series if we produce a rank turner. Has backfired so many times. Just make a completely depressing road to blunt Southee and Jamieson. Classic SC pitch which starts out a 500 pitch and becomes a 150 pitch on day 4 is what we need. Not his slow uneven bounce non deteriorating nonsense.

 

[Shri]

NZ will have a great chance to steal the series if we produce a rank turner. Has backfired so many times. Just make a completely depressing road to blunt Southee and Jamieson. Classic SC pitch which starts out a 500 pitch and becomes a 150 pitch on day 4 is what we need. Not his slow uneven bounce non deteriorating nonsense.

We will lose when panauti loses the toss

 

[sunilz]

We will lose when panauti loses the toss

Would have lost this test if Panauti was captain.

 

[Calm_profit]

I'm still pissed that Washington Sundar never got a chance after good Australia and England series with the bat.

 

[Moss]

Classic SC pitch which starts out a 500 pitch and becomes a 150 pitch on day 4 is what we need.

Wasn't this the sort of surface used for the first Chennai test of the England series, when Root batted India out of the game? Though IIRC the selection of Shabaz hurt India badly, don't expect either of the two left armers in the current side to be taken apart like he was.

 

[OverratedSanity]

We will lose when panauti loses the toss

If its a pitch that begins deteriorating day 2 itself then yeah. If we get a standard old school India pitch where its great till day3/halfway through day 4 and then crumbles, then the team which gets a big first innings lead in good conditions wins. Its those kind of pitches where we've won a ****ton of tests.

Unfortunately, the ability of the current batting lineup to actually pile on the pain on a flat deck is ehhhh. So i dunno. What Ims aying is NZ are winning this. As they should against India A, good on them.