Blackcaps In India: Second Test Preview
Low key lovin' Latham the lovely lefty
This Indian team are a win away from claiming the No. 1 spot in Test cricket and our Blackcaps are still building towards consistently competing against Test cricket's best nations. That paints a picture of the gulf in class between these two cricket teams and as we moved further away from that first up Test loss, closer to the start of today's Test, I found myself feeling more pride in what the Blackcaps dished up than anything else.
Of course, there were disappointing elements but any Test cricket in India comes with an asterix as there aren't too many tougher away trips in sport. Instead of bemoaning specific players and their lack of skill or application, I actually found myself frustrated that the Blackcaps came back to Aotearoa after their African excursion instead of going straight to India and really embedding themselves in those conditions. If we are serious about trying to be one of, if not the best Test cricket team in the world then you need to prepare as such and especially for a Test series in India where we saw and heard from the players how muggy it was.
Crying over spilt milk and stuff aside, that's important for me because now the Blackcaps and more notably the young Blackcaps have experienced the best or worst India has to offer in terms of stifling humidity. Heading into the second Test, the Blackcaps have already laid a fairly decent foundation despite the loss with Tom Latham, Kane Williamson and Luke Ronchi all enjoying some runs while Mitchell Santner will be high on confidence via a very strong Test, high on confidence and not the herb of the Himalayas.
The Blackcaps scored over 200 runs in such conditions against the world's best spin-duo and finished with 15/20 Indian wickets. Given the context of this team, I'm fairly happy with that and it's a good foundation to move forward from as the batsmen have now faced the wrath of the two Ravi's and our young spinners have got their first Test in India out of the way. I was extremely encouraged by what Kane Williamson said in the lead up to this Test as he alluded to the team needed to apply themselves, or concentrate for longer and that's perfect because it's exactly where you'd expect a skillful but inexperienced group to slip up.
Our batsmen need to be able to stick to their plans/guns longer, bringing more bad-balls from Ashwin and Jadeja into play. Our bowlers - Santner and Ish Sodhi especially - need to not just deliver one, two or three good deliveries but 12 ... which is tough to do when it's your first time playing with sweat beaming out of every pore.
Not a whole lot of sympathy though, I'm just eager to see the team perform better and to make improvements based on what went down in Kanpur and thanks to more time in this environment.
Williamson's presence in the batting line up will obviously be crucial, so hopefully he clears his bowels as best he can. I don't really care for Martin Guptill at this point and can't bring myself to write about him. Tom Latham, Luke Ronchi and Santner all tasted runs and should be able to make moves on a Kolkata pitch that is apparently better suited to batsmen; they head into this second Test with confidence that their plans (sweepin' and swift footwork) are effective. Ross Taylor is the biggun' for me though and he scored the least runs of our top order, I'm not confident that he'll deliver in the second Test but while seeing the youngsters like Latham and Santner build on their runs in the first Test is crucial, seeing Taylor learn and improve is equally as important.
We can't fall back on not expecting improvement from Taylor because while he's definitely world-class, he's not in the same league as Williamson.
I bloody hope we see the Blackcaps again roll out three spinners. That's thanks to Trent Boult and Neil Wagner both taking wickets in the first innings and you'd expect the drier conditions in Kolkata to help reverse swing and what not. I reckon Wagner's fire is a unique asset, while Boult is up there with the best in the business and to really ram that home, he's gotta show that he can somehow find a way to fire in foreign conditions.
Jeetan Patel's presence is obviously crucial as well, not because he's going to save the day with his five-straight 50+ wicket County seasons in his luggage but because he's simply better than Mark Craig. Patel's experience and skill should allow him to bowl more accurately, with more patience and if Patel's building pressure alongside Santner, then it allows Sodhi to attack with a bit more freedom.
Playing three spinners is something that is reserved to playing in India, or the sub-continent. This rarely happens for the Blackcaps, which severely tests the depth of our spin department as you're basically picking your second and third best spinners to perform against the world's best in their backyard. A spin attack of Patel, Santner and Sodhi just feels a whole lot more stable than Craig, Santner and Sodhi.
If the Blackcaps make a few minor improvements, they'll be far more competitive in this second Test and with those improvements we could hope for a draw. I'd suggest not to concern yourselves with the specific results though as there's young batsmen looking to develop their game and we can learn a lot about our young batsmen and bowlers by how they learn from that first Test. Then you've got the prospect of seeing Lord Jeetz, or perhaps he's now Uncle Jeetz in this Blackcaps side, lend a hand to our young spinners.