Hyderabad, Aug 22: New Zealand captain Ross Taylor has come to India with a single objective. He wants to brush aside the memories of a hideous tour to the West Indies and prove to the world that his team is much better than what their performance in the Caribbean suggested.
During his interaction with the media ahead of the first Test in Hyderabad, Taylor, time and again brought up the series defeat in West Indies and vowed on his team’s behalf to put up an inspired show. He stressed on the swinging conditions in Hyderabad and said the moving ball will work as an advantage for his bowlers against the Indian batting line-up sans Rahul Dravid and VVS laxman.
Excerpts:
How do you look at this series?
We’re going into the series keeping as positive a mind-frame as possible. We didn’t play as well as we’d have liked to in West Indies. We knew we should’ve won there. But this is a new year for New Zealand cricket and there’s a nice buzz going around in the team at the moment.
Have you looked at the pitch for the first Test?
I saw it yesterday. Let’s see what it is like tomorrow. The overhead conditions will play a part and it might swing around a bit for the first hour or so.
What would your bowling combination be like?
We won’t be playing four seamers. We’ll be playing at least one spinner. James Franklin will bat at six. It gives good balance to the side as he can bowl as well.
You’ll be up against an Indian side without two of their best Test batsmen, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. Does that make your task a bit easier?
I won’t say it’s going to be easy but the confidence in the group goes up when you don’t have to get Dravid and Laxman out. It gives an opportunity to the youngster who India decide to go with. Whoever that would be, we’ll look to attack him and try to put him under pressure.
The last time you were here, you put up a good fight in the Test series. Is that the focus this time too?
That is the focus and I hope it is the same for every series. We had expectations on the West Indies tour that we didn’t live up to. Playing India in India is always a challenge. It brings players from all teams out of their comfort zone. But we know that we have to perform a lot better than we did in the West Indies.
How much will the team miss Daniel Vettori?
We’ll miss his experience but it gives opportunity to Tarun (Nethula) or Jeetan (Patel) to have a go. Dan has played most Test matches for New Zealand and it’s never easy to replace someone like him. But again, we hope the others step up to the plate.
Any Indian player you’re targeting in particular?
The whole team is dangerous. We don’t want to concentrate on individuals. But we do have plans on how to play their bowlers and attack their batsmen. The ball has been swinging around since the last 3-4 days and we hope it continues for the next five days. We’ll look to swing the ball and put their batsmen under pressure.
After the John Wright vs John Buchanan saga, you now have a new coach in Mike Hesson. How is the team warming up to him?
Mike [Hesson] has been great so far. He’s brought in a new energy in the team. The way we’ve gone about our training and practice has a bit more buzz. Any new coach is going to have different philosophies and theories and I think the team has responded well to Mike.
Batting let the team down in West Indies. Will the approach be different in this series?
We were not ourselves in the West Indies. We didn’t bat to our potential. Here, rather than thinking too much about the target, we just need to bat and play each ball on merit. It’s not about scoring fifties and centuries but playing match-winning knocks. It’s about getting the crucial 70-odd runs in tough conditions and winning the match for the team. If that happens, we’ll get the right result at the end of the day.
You’ve come here with some new faces in the team. Will that work to your advantage that some of your players are unknown to the opposition?
Until you’re out there, you can’t tell how each bowler bowls and how our batters go. Most of our batsmen were here for the last series but the Indians will be surprised with how some of our bowlers bowl.
