New Zealand aren’t going to let India dominate them. Tom Latham, who took over Tim Southee as the new Test captain, feels that the only way to challenge Rohit Sharma‘s team in their own backyard is to take the game by the scruff of the neck. Don’t allow India to be aggressive, and try to put some pressure on them. Having seen India dismantle a ‘timid’ Bangladesh side, Lathom reckons attack would be New Zealand’s best form of defence in the 3-match Test series.
Put India under pressure: Latham
“It’s an exciting challenging going over to India and once we can go over there, hopefully play with a bit of freedom, bit of no fear and try and take it to them. If we do that hopefully, it gives ourselves a good chance. In India we’ve seen teams that have done well out there in the past have been quite aggressive towards them, especially with the bat they’ve looked to play a few shots, but also put them under pressure…Rather than sitting and waiting for something to happen,” Tom Latham said before leaving for India on Friday (October 11).
Positives from Sri Lanka
New Zealand aren’t coming to India confidently. They are currently on a 4-match losing streak and were beaten comprehensively by Sri Lanka in Galle, where they reduced to 88 after the hosts had put 602 runs on the board. However, Latham has taken some learning from the loss. He feels that innings was an aberration, and they played some good cricket in Sri Lanka, which can help them in India.
“We’ll decide on how we want to play when we get over there, but guys have got plans around how they like to approach things and hopefully we can fine-tune those. We actually did some really good things in Sri Lanka. We fell on the wrong side of the results but there were some good things. The approach we had with the bat, apart from that one innings, I thought we played really well. So it’s about continuing that as much as we can and trying to play a brand of cricket that we are proud of playing,” he added.
New Zealand’s squad for India Test series
Tom Latham (c), Tom Blundell (wk), Michael Bracewell (1st Test), Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Matt Henry, Daryl Mitchell, Will O’Rourke, Ajaz Patel, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Ben Sears, Ish Sodhi (2nd and 3rd Tests), Tim Southee, Kane Williamson, Will Young
