5 reasons why India should not prepare rank turners against New Zealand

We are just over two weeks away from the start of a long home season with India scheduled to play as many as 13 Test matches against New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia respectively.

Before such a scenario on more occasions than not, the pitches come under the scanner, with too much assistance for spinners making the contests one-sided affair.

We look at five reasons why India should not prepare rank turners in the series against New Zealand:

1.Presence of quality spinners in NZ

In the past, Indian teams have taken the advantage of the fact that foreign batsmen have a weakness to facing quality spin bowling. But the scenario has changed a bit in the past five years, with overseas sides also bringing along with them some fine yet underrated spinners, who are equally capable of causing damage.

The best example for that was England’s 2012-13 tour to India, where the likes of Graeme Swann, Monty Panesar proved to be more effective than the Indian foursome of R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja.

Four years on, Indi would be once again tempted to prepare square turners for the Kiwis, but will do well to not do that, thanks to the presence of Ish Sodhi, Mitchell Santner and Mark Craig in the visitor’s arsenal.

If they need any proof for the kind of damage that they can do, they just need to go back to the World T20 game at Nagpur, where they bundled out India for a paltry total to win the match for their side.

2.Chances of low scores again from big players

Barring the final Test at Delhi, Virat Kohli struggled for most parts of the Test series against South Africa last year

One of the reasons why crowds come to venues is to see the big names perform well and if they see the ball turn viciously from the first session, then it is an indication to them that the batsmen are going to have a tough day in the middle and when their prediction does comes true, then it becomes a damp squib for them.

An ideal day for an Indian supporter is to see India bat on the day he/she is at the venue and their favourite star get among the runs. Not that they don’t enjoy the bowlers dominate proceedings, but fours and sixes are just a lot more appealing to the normal Indian spectator as compared to a bowler doing well and picking up wickets.

3.No proper Test matches on view

Except for the Test in Delhi against South Africa last year, the ones in Mohali and Nagpur finished with two days to spare

When matches are played on wickets that offer a lot to the bowlers, then along with low individual scores, we also smaller totals for the team, overall. The lack of runs from the batting team results in reduced Test matches, as we saw in the home series aginst South Africa last year, when the highest score amomg both teams in the first three Tests was 215 and barring the final Test at the Kotla, the ones in Mohali and Nagpur finished with two days to spare.

It is imperative then that while bowlers don’t completely go out of the game, they don’t totally dominate proceedings either in order to ensure a good game of Test cricket is provided to the fans.

4.Fast bowlers become sideshow

Trent Boult and Tim Southee

For a long time, if there was anything that spectators enjoyed, apart from batsman scoring big tons, it was fast bowlers, haring in and knocking the stumps over. Not only do both India and New Zealand have good spinners, but let’s not forget that both have a battery of fast bowlers as well.

The combination of Tim Southee and Trent Boult are considered among the best in the business and adding depth to the attack is Neil Wagner as well as Jimmy Neesham.

India, too have a good seam bowling attack, with Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami etc.

So while the Ashwins, Jadejas, Sodhis etc will be licking their lips in anticipation of what is to come, let’s hope that for the sake of watching timber fly at the rate of knotts, we see wickets that have a bit in them for the quicks as well.

5.Little balance between bat and ball

Good pitches are imperative for balance between bat and ball

A debatre that has been in the limelight, particularly in the limited-overs format has been the imbalance between bat and ball. With shorter boundaries and bigger bats, it really has been difficult for the bowlers to be in the game at most points and the administrators have tried to address the issue and ensure that it doesn’t favour one side too much.

Similarly, for Test cricket to be interesting, we need pitches that give everybody a chance to express themselves and not just have one side dominate and to ensure that happens, we need to prepare good wickets for Test match cricket.