Adaptability key as India look to avoid whitewash, says coach

31.10.2024 - 11:07 channelnewsasia.com

MUMBAI : India will look to avoid a rare series whitewash at home when they meet New Zealand in the third and final test of the series in Mumbai from Friday and head coach Gautam Gambhir said his team had to rise to the challenge.New Zealand tormented the hosts with pace and beat them by eight wickets in Bengaluru for their first test victory in India for 36 years.

They wrapped up the series in Pune with a 113-run victory set up by the spinners.It was New Zealand's maiden series win in India going back to 1955 and the Black Caps snapped the hosts' proud home streak of 18 successive series triumphs since their 2-1 defeat by England 12 years ago.The last time India were blanked in a home series was in 2000, when they lost 2-0 to South Africa, and Gambhir said his batsmen had to adapt before next month's tour of Australia, where they will play five tests."We should be able to adapt.

We should be a side that can get 400 on a day if we need to get a result and able to bat for two days as well. That's what growth is and that's what test cricket is all about," Gambhir told reporters on Thursday."Test cricket can't be played in a single manner because it's about adaptability, looking at the situation and playing according to the situation and more importantly, it's about playing sessions."If we can start to learn to play sessions, with the quality we have in our batting lineup, I think if we play 4-1/2 sessions we'll have a lot of runs on the board."Mitchell Santner's match haul of 13 wickets in Pune exposed India's frailties against spin bowling."Sometimes you have to hand it to the opposition.

I think Mitchell Santner was outstanding in the last game. We'll keep working hard and getting better. The guys are putting in the hard

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India head coach Gautam Gambhir on Thursday pointed out reasons for recent trend of teams losing at home in Tests and said that it is because of the pressure of the World Test Championship (WTC) points. India will be looking to saving their pride as they take on Kiwis in the third Test at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. With the hosts being 0-2 down in the three-match series and having endured their first series loss in Tests at home in 12 years, they will be aiming to play out of their skins in order to avoid an embarassing whitewash.

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Fast-bowling all-rounders are rare in cricket. India haven't had many quality batters who can also bowl pace of late, with Hardik Pandya arguably being the finest option at present. But, Hardik's India career is limited to only white-ball cricket at present. Hence, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) picked Nitish Kumar Reddy for the forthcoming Australia tour. Nitish has already impressed many with his batting in the T20I series against Bangladesh. As his stocks rise in international cricket, Reddy revealed a big tip from coach Gautam Gambhir that helped him excel.

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