Trans-Tasman switch holds no fears for New India

The Big Show has arrived in the small island. Not Maxwell G.J. of Australia but the game's big bucks - Indian Cricket Inc in New Zealand. Hamilton happens to be New Zealand's fourth-largest city where the Indian team must play to its smallest World Cup crowd. Seddon Park's absolute, maximum, chockabloc capacity, it has formally been communicated, is 11,002. Do not leave out the last two.

India's World Cup so far has mostly been played in front of audiences more than twice this size. It has taken place in high pressure and high heat of Australia's summer where India produced a mind-boggling turnaround. As if the lot that stumbled through the Tests and the tri-series in Australia had been kidnapped and stealthily replaced by perfectly-tuned, highly-skilled robot-impostors as final proof of the superiority of an alien civilization.

Had India's World Cup been, like familiar historical precedents, a bit dibbly-dobbly with these last two group matches must-wins, there would have been profuse sweating in the large party that makes up the team. Here, across the Tasman, the air is cooler, the grounds smaller and the pace and tempo of play far more temperate. Now that the quarter-final spot has been sealed, India's World Cup in New Zealand could be, to use an MS Dhoni automobile analogy, the chance to re-tune their engines. There is a top spot in their group to be earned, with matches left against Ireland and Zimbabwe but India have also given themselves some breathing room, a chance to test the adaptability of their first XI and call upon all spirits of the Waikato tribes that Rohit Sharma finds some touch.

There will be a slightly different tenor to the first of India's two games in the New Zealand leg of the World Cup. Big grounds, big totals, hard wickets with more bounce than lateral movement give way to smaller grounds and conditions more suited to swing; not an aspect of bowling that India's big-ticket batters are very happy with. Despite Ireland's heart, their bowlers do not possess the teeth of pace and with the sun expected to be out tomorrow, they should not find conditions to make the batsmen nervous either.

In this half of the World Cup, the ODI tempo has been, like they often joke about New Zealand itself, slightly behind the times. It is not completely skewed in favour of the batsmen, with scorecards reading like those from an early 2000s score book. There is more than just a 'ditch' that separates this World Cup between Australia and New Zealand. The average score batting first in New Zealand is 256 compared to 311 in Australia. The run-rates in New Zealand have been a more sedate 5.5 in comparison's to Australia's 6.42.

India do not have very happy memories of their last visit here early in 2014, which produced a misery matching that of the first two months of their Australian tour this year - zero wins from five ODIs, two Tests and a practice game. In the ODIs, India lost four and tied one game and apart Virat Kohli, none of India's top five batsmen scored too many. In fact Ravindra Jadeja found himself as India's third highest run-scorer in that series, tied with Rohit Sharma's aggregate of 145 in five innings. This in a high-scoring series where India rattled up totals of: 268, 277, 314, 278 and then 216. Of the struggling batsmen from the 2014 tour, Suresh Raina, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane and Ambati Rayudu are still around. India's fast bowlers at the time - Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron - conceded more than seven runs per over.

Following from impressive World Cup bowling performances in Australia, Mohit Sharma, India's candidate in the media tent on Monday, acknowledged that New Zealand's smaller grounds and tinier outfields - Seddon Park looks hankie-size but docks in at 60m - did gnaw somewhat at bowlers' minds: "You have to change your line a little, but we are not going to fret much about it, whatever is there is there. It is the same for both the teams."

Mohit wasn't around when India had last turned up at Seddon Park, a little over a year ago in that nightmare ODI series, losing two high-scoring ODIs to New Zealand within a week. After getting shafted by Duckworth & Lewis in the first match, scoring more than New Zealand's total but still losing, they failed to defend 278 and lost the series here. It is not the same India, though, that will be turning up on Tuesday.