Wings clipped, Kiwis dare India
Ahmedabad, Nov. 3: The Indians are fresh from thumping Australia 2-0. The New Zealanders are coming from a bruising 0-4 loss to minnows Bangladesh. The contest is bound to be mismatch when the two teams take to the field for the first Test beginning at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera here on Thursday.
Kiwi captain Daniel Vettori admitted as much. “This is going to be toughest tour of our lives. India is playing incredible cricket with such an experienced side. But we have quite a few young players with two to three years of experience in first-class cricket,” he said.
This tour, though, isn’t just a simple David vs Goliath scenario. The Kiwis are hungry, angry and will seek to exploit whatever little weaknesses they see in the Indian side.
The odds are stacked against them. They have not won a Test match in India since 1988. They’ve also not played India in a bilateral series since 2003.
\Only Vettori has survived from the 2003 squad that drew here which makes it even tougher for the rest to adapt themselves to the pitch and weather conditions here without the benefit of a warm-up game.
Dhoni though made it clear on Wednesday that the hosts would not Kiwis lightly.
India have already bulked-up their batting with Gautam Gambhir and Laxman returning from injuries to take their place from reserve opener Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara.
But with a far tougher tour of South Africa later this year and the 2011 World Cup just months away, the skipper would be far more focussed on the spate of injuries rather than the opposition for the next three weeks.
Post new comment