Spin worries haunt Kiwis

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Following two tough tours when Indian Test cricket was brutalised and sent to the depths of despair in England and Australia, the home series against a young and inexperienced New Zealand squad must have been the perfect antidote for Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men.

This is not to say the Kiwis are pushovers but bring them to the sub-continent, subjugate them to the harsh conditions and put out a turner and there’s not much the Ross Taylor-led squad can do.
Given their limited exposure to Test cricket with Taylor himself being just 40 Tests old, the Kiwis are on a ‘learning’ experience but their Achilles Heel — spin — which has haunted them for ages now, will again prove to their bugbear in the second Test beginning at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium on Friday.
Having crumbled to the guiles of R. Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha in less than four days at Hyderabad, Taylor in particular and New Zealand in general, will be sorely missing the services of Daniel Vettori, who as Royal Challengers Bangalore captain, knows the conditions here like his home turf in Auckland. Unfortunately, the canny, bespectacled all-rounder is recovering from a groin injury and will only play in the two T20 despite joining the touring party here a couple of days ago.
In Vettori’s absence, the Kiwis’ most experienced campaigner, Brendon McCullum with 66 Test caps, will have a huge role to play as mentor and rally the young squad still struggling to find its feet in the five-day arena.
Having said that, it’s as much a transition period for Indian cricket with the retirement of stalwarts in Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman. More importantly, the youngsters in the squad will look to settle in before England (Oct.-Dec.) and Australia come calling in what will be the biggest tests of their fledgling careers.
Much as we can gloat over the performances against a relatively weak Kiwi team, the test of character will only arrive when England and Australia touch down here.
Then again, in home conditions, the Indians have seldom given anything away but the young faces in Dhoni’s team will like to make a seamless transition.
While Cheteshwar Pujara has stepped in back into the fold following a long injury break, Suresh Raina will definitely want to step up before the big season dawns on him.
In the same context, another southpaw Gautam Gambhir, much more experienced but struggling for runs of late, will complete a personal landmark of 50 Tests when he takes to the field on Friday.
Given the 30-year-old’s grit, more than the landmark it will be the fact that he has gone 21 Tests without a century dating back to January 2010 that will play on Gambhir’s mind.
True, he has nine half-centuries in the period but there is no gainsaying in the fact that he would have happily sacrificed a couple of his half-tons if he could have converted them into bigger, three-figure marks.
With wet, gloomy conditions forecast for the weekend whether the Test will last the distance is the big question on what is broadly called a sporting pitch but which in reality will be just another turner to push the Kiwis deeper into the Indian quagmire called spin.