[1]There’s no Commonwealth Games this time around — no collapsing beds or bridges — to vie for eyeballs with India’s Test preparations like it did when the Aussies came calling a month back.
But on the eve of India’s first Test against New Zealand here that kicks off a three-week long tour, the build-up is so low-key that the heavily-decorated market on the banks of Sabarmati River running along the stadium looks far more welcoming to those passing by.
This is good though, and has a lot to do with how superior Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men looked against Australia in the two Tests preceding this one.
The 2-0 series win had everything the Indian skipper could have asked for — his top two bowers Zaheer Khan and Harbhjan Singh finished with a combined 23 wickets, the side’s best bat Sachin Tendulkar amassed 403 runs, a good 150-odd runs more than what Australia’s top-scorer Shane Watson got.
Then there were two gems in the second innings of both Tests — one by V.V.S. Laxman (75 not out at Mohali) and the other by rookie middle order batsman Cheteshwar Pujara (an unbeaten 72 in Bengaluru) — that showed the depth in India’s batting, both within the team and among those waiting in the wings.
Against this background how does a side coming off a bruising 0-4 loss to minnows Bangladesh playing away stack up?
“This is going to be toughest tour of our lives. India are 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,” Kiwi skipper Daniel Vettori said. “We’ve always been underdogs and we’ve always done well that way.”
The lack of expectations has been one of the reasons why they’ve punched above their weight in the last two decades, and why at this venue they have managed two draws against India, in 1999 and 2003.
This tour, though, isn’t just a simple David vs Goliath scenario like in the past.
The mauling by Bangladesh led to New Zealand Cricket officials summoning the captain just days ago and threatening the players, coach Mark Greatbatch and high performance director Roger Mortimer to step up or face the axe.
The Kiwis are hungry, angry and for probably after a long time under immense pressure, and will seek to exploit whatever little weaknesses they see in the Indian side.
The odds though, are stacked against them. They have not won a Test match in India since Richard Hadlee and offie John Bracewell took 18 wickets in the second Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai to set up a 136-run victory in November 1988.
They’ve also not played India in a bilateral series since 2003.
In the last seven years much has changed with Dhoni’s men moving to number one and number two positions in the Test and one-day rankings respectively.
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 Pujara.
But with a far tougher tour of South Africa later this year and the 2011 World Cup immediately afterwards, the skipper will be far more focussed on the spate of injuries rather than the opposition for the next three weeks.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/sp1104jpg-399