Players of New Zealand and Indian team are all set to play the Second Test series from 31st August at Chinnaswamy Stadium. This final test series will be played in Bangalore from Friday. Practice has already started as per the officials of Karnataka State Cricket Association. The NZ team is seen in full mood and all geared up for the second test. They are sweating it out in nets to practice harder for the Test series.
As far as the Indian squad is concerned, the team has already won the first Test, beating New Zealand by one innings along with 115 runs in Hyderabad. Ross Taylor, captain of the New Zealand team expressed his irritation and sadness at their failure in the last series. Now the team prepares hard to beat Indian team in Bangalore and win the second test.
Team NZ is hoping to actually avoid second successive 2-0 score loss and after getting bowled out for 159 and 164 in two innings of First Test. Taylor now knows the area where his team needs to improve and perform well on.
Taylor reported that they need to push hard and perform really well. This is something nice about the two test series. He further added that his team lacked resolve and technique. While Kane Williamson earned 32 and 52 runs in First Test, Brendon McCullum gained 42 in the innings of high restraint.
From the Indian side, the team is pretty strong. But at the same time, they need to make sure that they perform consistently if they want to win both the test matches. In the Indian squad, there are not many concerns. Surely, VVS Laxman’s retirement will affect a lot but 150 first innings from Chetashwar Pujara shows that Laxman’s place is now in safe hands.
So, in all, in case the Kiwis can fight Ashwin, they may be able to score some. However it is tough to see the Kiwi bowlers getting through strong Indian batting side.
Likely teams:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar,Subramaniam Badrinath, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, Zaheer Khan,Pragyan Ojha, Umesh Yadav, Ajinkya Rahane, Piyush Chawla, Ishant Sharma, Suresh Raina.
New Zealand: Ross Taylor (capt), Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Daniel Flynn, James Franklin, Martin Guptill, Chris Martin, Brendon McCullum, Tarun Nethula, Jeetan Patel, Tim Southee, Kruger van Wyk, Neil Wagner, Bradley-John Watling, Kane Williamson.
