Taylor banks on 'surprise' attack

Ross Taylor, the New Zealand captain, has said he expects the ball to swing in Hyderabad and that his pace-heavy bowling attack can surprise India. Taylor said New Zealand will be playing "at least" one spinner and hinted James Franklin, the allrounder, could also be included.

"Obviously the overhead conditions might play a bit of a part. It might swing around a bit for the first hour, an hour and a bit," Taylor said. "We will be playing at least one spinner. But Franklin batting at six gives a good balance to our side and gives us an extra bowling option as well. Every day we have been here so far, it has been cloudy. We are expecting it to swing. It swung in training and hopefully it can swing for five days as well."

The other seamers in the touring squad are Chris Martin, Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner.

India last played New Zealand at home in 2010. "Most of our batters have played against India here last time, so they won't be a surprise to MS [Dhoni]," Taylor said. "But it will be a bit of a surprise when he faces some of our bowlers."

New Zealand are under a new coach, Mike Hesson, who took over from John Wright. "Mike has been great for the group. He has brought in a new energy and the way we have gone about our training," Taylor said. "There is a bit more of a buzz around the team and I think any new coach is going to have different philosophies and theories and the team is responding well to those at the moment."

New Zealand had a poor tour of the West Indies, losing the Tests 0-2. The batting had let them down then and Taylor said the team needed bigger performances. "It's just about batting each ball and if we do that, we have the best chance to bat for long periods of time. It's not about scoring 50s or 100s," Taylor said. "If we have match-winning performances, then hopefully we get the right results at the end of the day."