The time has come

The relative low success rate of teams travelling to New Zealand may have much to do with looking upon the assignment as just another tour. There is little folklore about Indian teams visiting there in spite of the fact that India’s first series win overseas came in New Zealand.

However, with the bowling now available to make full use of the conditions in New Zealand, and the advantage of playing the ODIs first, Harsha Bhogle in the Indian Express writes that this time around, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men can break the New Zealand jinx.

There is little of the excitement associated with going to England or Australia or Pakistan; or for that matter South Africa. Maybe it is because we do not see a lot of cricket from New Zealand, maybe the time difference is a factor or maybe, it is just not exciting enough. New Zealand, maybe, is a bit like a number six batsman who hangs in there, bats with the tail and returns 36 not out. Effective but not exciting.

Indian fielding coach Robin Singh feels the era of the specialist fielding positions is over and that in the age of Twenty20 cricket there is no choice, no preferred place. He also recognises that the campaign in New Zealand will be a challenging one and identified slip catching as a vital area for getting success. S Dinakar in the Hindu has more.