New Zealand captain Tom Latham revealed their plans for the upcoming second Test match against India which is scheduled to take place at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. He said that they would try to get information about the pitch by witnessing previous games at the venue.
New Zealand are coming after registering a historic win against India in the first Test match which was played at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru after 36 years.
Team India who dominated Bangladesh in their last assignment were bundled out on just 46 runs in first innings against the Kiwis where Virat Kohli, Sarfaraz Khan, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin got out on a duck. Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal were the only batters who scored in double digits.
"Whatever we're presented with, for us it's about trying to adapt as quick as we can,” Latham told the media ahead of the second Test here.
“If it is going to be a wicket that turns a little bit more, then we've got four spinners in our line-up, that will play into their hands, but it's (also) about to try not to go into the game with too many preconceived ideas,” he added.
Latham admitted he has given thought to how to utilise the spinners at their disposal. New Zealand have Ish Sodhi, Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel among frontline tweakers and Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips also to roll over their arms.
“I obviously had a little bit of a think around what that may look like,” he said.
“(We will) try to get a little bit of information from previous games here and also the practice wickets that we're on, will hopefully be something around, or similar to what we're getting,” he said.
Latham said New Zealand won’t be resting on their laurels of drought-breaking Bengaluru Test win.
“(It is) very special, there is myself, Graham Dowling and John Wright, to be in this position is really special. But for me it was a team effort,” he said.
“We celebrated what was a special performance, but our attention (has) turned quickly to this game and we're trying not to rest on what happened last week, (we are) trying to take the confidence from last week and take that into this game and hopefully hit the ground running.”
“The confidence that it can bring into a side is probably the most important thing, that we can come over here and we can compete and we can do well,” he added.
Earlier, New Zealand Cricket announced that former skipper Kane Williamson will miss the second Test as he is currently on the road to recovery.
