NEWS
Follow UsFormer New Zealand opener Martin Guptill spoke about the challenges faced by a touring side while playing Test cricket in India. He said, sometimes, as a batter, you feel you can "never score" runs in those conditions. The Black Caps, who are currently in Sri Lanka, are set to tour India for a three-match Test series, starting on October 16.
"You feel like you can never score sometimes, that's the hardest thing about coming here to India. The ball's turning square, then the same sort of ball comes through and it skids on straight,” Guptill, who played 27 Tests for New Zealand, told PTI.
"You never know which one's going to turn and which one's going to go straight, so you have to always be thinking, you have to always be mentally on song and on (the top of) your game.”
New Zealand have won only two of their 36 Tests in India. Their last win on Indian soil came way back in 1988. What’s more, the Men in Blue haven’t lost a home series in 11 years and are currently on a 17-series winning streak.
"To try and get on top of India is extremely difficult. But when you feel like you are, you have to try and take that as long as possible in the game," said Guptill.
"It's a tough place to play. It's hot, sweaty and you feel like everything's against you. But as I said, if you can get try and get on top of them and you feel like you are getting on top of them, you've got to try and go as deep as possible in the game.”
Talking about the threat of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who shared a 199-run stand for the seventh wicket and also claimed 11 wickets in the first Test against Bangladesh in Chennai, Guptill said, "Both of them. I mean, you can't take away (the fact) that (Ravindra) Jadeja scored 86, 89 or something, wasn't it?
"(They had a) 199 run partnership, you think you've got India against the ropes and then you've got these two come out and bat. While Jadeja is probably the better batter, I mean, Ashwin goes about his work in a completely different way and is very effective in the way he scores his runs.
"So you never feel like you're on top of India because they've got such depth, and then, obviously, you've got them as a partnership of the ball as well.”
Guptill also heaped heavy praise on William O’Rourke who picked up eight wickets in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle, which New Zealand lost by 63 runs. Guptill said O’Rourke has that extra pace other New Zealand bowlers don’t.
"I first faced him maybe three years ago and I was really, really impressed with how he bowled. For him to have developed further in the last couple of years and get his chance in Test cricket, man, he's had a really good start.
"He's got a little bit of extra pace behind him, which some of our bowlers don't have and he's got a bit of height, which gives him that little bit of extra bounce, which on our wickets at home helps a lot more than maybe what it does here in the subcontinent.”
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