Onus on batsmen to stifle Kiwis

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The biggest threat to M.S. Dhoni’s men in this second of this short two-Test series will emanate from the weather and not their rivals.

Having been instilled the fear of god in eight of their last nine Tests, the Indians are totally at home, comfortable in the knowledge that in alien conditions there is not much this New Zealand side can do.
The damage to the visitors’ psyche is already done and down 0-1 in the series, Ross Taylor’s outfit will have to do all the running to stop India from blanking them in the second Test beginning here on Friday.
New Zealand, by nature, have never been known to intimidate their opponents in the longer version and it’s little wonder that their successes have been few and far in between in the five-day game.
For sure, they have a wealth of talent in the young side, packed with seamers spearheaded by the indefatigable Chris Martin, who has soldiered on over the last 12 years and is certainly on his last tour on Indian soil.
Having said that, Martin, 37, himself has played just 70 Tests since his debut in 2000 and it just goes to show that Test match ratio is probably skewered when it comes to Kiwi cricket.
Given the scenario, Taylor will be looking to Martin and his bunch of fast bowlers in Doug Bracewell and Boult with James Franklin chipping in and hopefully exploit the conditions which appear favourable to the men who bend their backs.
Interestingly, both captains differed on the issue. While Dhoni felt the pitch was hard on the outside, Taylor was guarded in his approach, unwilling to get carried away by the greenish tinge of the turf on match eve.
A generous cloud cover, a benign pitch which hasn’t received enough sunshine owing to thunderstorms over the past one week has left the outcome of the match on a knife’s edge. In any other part of the world, it could have put a spring in the fast bowlers’ steps but traditionally, the Chinnaswamy wicket hasn’t been all that helpful to the breed who bowl in excess of 130mph.
As in most home matches, the Indian batsmen, having grown up on a diet of slow pitches, will look to stifle the life out of the opposition bowlers and a lone spinner in Jeetan Patel, who will be playing only his sixth Test since 2010, is hardly of the threatening variety.
Save for Cheteshwar Pujara, Dhoni and Virat Kohli to an extent, the Indian batsmen didn’t exactly set the stage on fire in Hyderabad.