The New Zealand cricket team are set to play their pre-series warm-up match against Mumbai team at the Feroz Shah Kotla. The three-day game will be an opportunity for the visiting team to acclimatise and get used to the conditions ahead of the three-Test and five-ODI tour.
Speaking to the media in Delhi ahead of training on the pre-match day, Ross Taylor said, “A warm-up game is a warm-up game, it is a chance to get out and play. The Indian conditions are obviously a lot warmer than conditions back home in New Zealand. So it’s nice to get out there and stretch our legs firstly and we are expecting a tough match against Mumbai as well.” While the team looks to familiarise themselves to the conditions, he also mentioned that the training facilities provided to the team have been great.
Speaking about the forthcoming game he specified, “It is not going to be a first-class game. We are going to play 15 players.”
While New Zealand are expecting the wickets to turn, they are working to counter the challenge. Taylor himself has been a good player of the sweep shot which is one of the key strokes against spinners. Asked about it, he said, “The sweep shot is something that I have played a lot at the start of my career, and it is something that I have tried to get away from and specially in the Test match format. But I think anytime you are playing in the sub-continent you need to be able to play the sweep shot or the cut shot. A lot of the guys are practicing during training and we will talk about it with the team. Yes, my strength is the sweep shot and some of the people who have had success here, looking at Brendon (McCullum) when he came over here and two-hundred it wasn’t necessarily the sweep shot it was the reverse sweep that he was able to put the pressure back on the bowler. We have people that can play the reverse sweep and put pressure on whoever is bowling. Whatever happens you have to play to your strengths and mine is the sweep shot.”
While the Blackcaps themselves have some good spinners in their attack with the likes of Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner, they have a very potent pace attack led by Tim Southee and Trent Boult. Discussing the bowling and the role of pacers he elaborated, “I think you should add Neil Wagner in there. I think he is a high strung bowler. The variation, the way they bowled in the World T20 it showed that on a spinning track they are world class bowlers given the right conditions. The ball does swing a little bit here early on and there is going to be different conditions (where) we might open with a spinner. With the abrasive surface we are expecting that the reverse swing is going to be effective. And Tren, Tim and Neil are very good exponents of the reverse swing. We just have to wait and see. We have the three-day match to get to.”
Looking forward to the series, he concluded, “India have come off a great series win and playing India at home is challenge. We will put in our best preparation.”
