Test series these days - ones between sides at close to full strength - start along predictable lines. Home sides are usually so dominant that they are overwhelming favourites or they are so weak that strong sides such as India can streamroll them. New Zealand will face top-ranked India in a two-match series starting at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on Friday. reports Cricinfo.
In New Zealand over the next two weeks, anything is possible: 2-0, 0-2, 1-0, 0-1, 1-1, 0-0. For two excellent pace-bowling units, the conditions will remain a challenge, making draws a distinct possibility.
Don't go by New Zealand's annihilation in Australia, these sides are pretty evenly matched. If India have arguably the best all-conditions bowling attack, New Zealand's quicks know how to get wickets at home better than anyone else.
The same bowlers that seemed pedestrian in Australia where you need to bash the hard length will be effective with their kiss-the-surface swing. Or at least they won't suffer in comparison with the opposition quicks as much as they did in Australia.
That doesn't mean India don't have the attack to take wickets in New Zealand. Just that in these conditions, their added advantages over a slightly limited New Zealand attack will not be apparent in these conditions. It is in the second innings that their familiarity with the conditions has tended to trump their opponents. Test cricket in New Zealand is played in the reverse with batting getting progressively better on pitches that don't break up, and it is in those second innings that New Zealand's bowlers have found ways to dismiss oppositions. This is when New Zealand bowlers have managed to average in the mid-20s since December 2013, but one of the key components of that attack, Neil Wagner, will be missing for the season opener at Basin Reserve as he awaits the arrival of his child, and the other, Trent Boult, has had no competitive cricket since breaking his right hand in Australia.
In most other places, India would start as favourites, but at home, New Zealand have lost just two Tests in their last 14 series, a record second only to India's at home. Then again, India haven't lost a series anywhere since the 4-1 reverse in England in 2018. Let there be no further ado then.
