CHENNAI: In cricket, away Test tours are often considered the frontiers to conquer. For teams like Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, their biggest challenge has been to win a Test series in the Asian subcontinent, especially India. Similarly, for Asian teams, again take India, winning a series in 'SENA' countries remains the ultimate prize in Test cricket. For India, it took 39 years to win one in England (thrice in 1971, 1986 and 2007), 71 years in Australia (twice in 2018-19 and 2020-21), 12 years in New Zealand (twice in 1968 and 2009) and are yet to win one in South Africa.
Over the next month and a half, India will be in New Zealand playing as many as 12 matches across formats. However, the biggest challenge of all for the Shubman Gill-led side would be the two Tests starting from November 19. Not just because India have won only two Test series in New Zealand in 58 years, but also the factors in play at the moment.
India's top four will be playing Tests in NZ for the first time. In fact, only three members — Ravindra Jadeja (3), Rishabh Pant (2) and Jasprit Bumrah (2) — among the current team have some kind of Test experience in the country. Coupled with the fact that the series is being played in November and not the peak summer of New Zealand, conditions will not be easy. Then there is the World Test Championship. India are in fifth spot and desperately need to win the series 1-0 or 2-0 to stay alive in the race for the WTC final. It is safe to say that this series will be a litmus test for skipper Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir.
Former New Zealand head coach Gary Stead, who oversaw two series wins against India at home and away and a WTC title, feels so as well. "In New Zealand, it will depend on the weather conditions leading into the Test matches because this time of the year it is very changeable. It could be 25 degrees or it could be 10 degrees. I think the challenge for the Indian players will be the bouncing ball as opposed to the seam so much. That's probably the biggest difference when you compare the two countries as the extra bounce that you get because of the grassy nature of the surfaces," Stead, who is now head coach of Andhra, told this daily.
The 54-year-old recalled how Kyle Jamieson used the extra bounce on his debut in 2020 to dismiss Virat Kohli and opened the floodgates for the hosts. Though Ishant Sharma took a fifer in the first match and Bumrah fared well in the second, Indian batters struggled against the likes of Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Jamieson as the visitors lost the series 2-0. "I guess the advantage that we tried to use then was playing on sporting wickets where the ball was going to be fast and seam around and try and put things in our advantage. I remember him (Jamieson) bowling at the Basin Reserve and getting Kohli out early and I think it just probably gave the team confidence. When you consider Boult, Southee, Neil Wagner, Jamieson... we had a very strong bowling attack who were all quite different, but they were all very complementary to the surfaces that you will face in New Zealand and had very specific roles around what they were doing," Stead explained.
The one thing the former Black Caps coach firmly believed is New Zealand's advantage lies in their batters ability to handle seaming tracks more than the bowling attack itself. "The thing that we saw as our advantage wasn't so much the bowling attacks, but the ability to handle those seaming wickets on the New Zealand surfaces. They were really challenging wickets in 2020 and for me perhaps the difference between the two teams wasn't so much the bowling, but the way the New Zealand top order handled the Indian bowlers. I think the two Toms, Blundell and Latham, both had a pretty good series at the top of the order and gave us that platform to be able to then score enough runs that it was always going to be competitive. Whilst New Zealand won that series 2-0, it was still a very, very competitive series," the former coach recalled.
This is where Indian team management will hope that the shadow A tour will help the Indian players get acclimated. At least nine Test players — KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, B Sai Sudharsan, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Anshul Kamboj and Pant (subject to fitness) — will play in three red-ball matches from October 24-November 10. Stead, while acknowledging that it may help, reiterates that New Zealand would not make it easy on the visitors. "I think anytime you get to play in close or the exact conditions you may play in, it certainly helps because it gives you experience. It gives you confidence in your ability. But I'm sure New Zealand A will put out a strong team as well and try and challenge them and make it tougher for those players so they do go into the Test match with doubts as well. But that's the beauty of having A tours and something that I am very, very fond of is how you can grow the experience and grow the depth of your players. India have so many good players here and I was interested whether they would send a lot of their batters over to get ready and it looks like they have done that way," he said.
Though the next three weeks will be dominated by the attention towards white-ball series, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, there is little doubt that Gill and Gambhir would have their eyes on the Test tour. And over the next month, they will be doing everything in their power to give themselves the best chance to compete and win a Test series in New Zealand.