🏏NZ Tour of India 2024: 2nd Test: 24 to 29 Oct 24, Day 3 - Pg 28 🏏 - Page 3

Pitch report | Simon Doull and Dinesh Karthik: The colour of the pitch remains the same - black soil in both Bangalore and Pune. On a good length area, it's a lot more dry and a lot more devoid of grass. The team winning the toss should bat first, and there will be enough assistance for spinners from ball one.

"Akash Deep is marking his run-up," says our correspondent Ganesh Chandrasekaran from Pune.

Rohit and Gambhir had a big smile earlier as they walked out to inspect the pitch. India have been in this position before - they lost the first Test against England recently, only to bounce back in style. They haven't lost a single series at home since 2012, winning 18 on the bounce. It's going to be a huge challenge for New Zealand to keep this side down.

New Zealand have won the toss and have opted to bat

Rohit: Would've batted as well. When you play a Test match like that, the first session didn't go our way. But we batted well in the second innings. We take a lot of positives from that and see how we can turn things around here. Always want to find ways to get back into the Test match when you're behind. That's what we did. Pitch is a little drier, yes. We do understand how important the first 10 overs are. Three changes - Siraj, KL and Kuldeep miss out. Akash Deep, Washington and Gill come in.

Latham: We're going to have a bat. Surface slightly different to what it was last week. Not a lot of grass. Might produce a bit of spin as we expect when we come to these parts of the world. Obviously a really proud moment for this group. We celebrated that but our focus has quickly turned to Pune here. It's just about adapting to this surface. Trying to take the confidence we built up from last week. Matt Henry misses out with a glute niggle. Santner comes in.

Teams:

India (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah

New Zealand (Playing XI): Tom Latham(c), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell(w), Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ajaz Patel, William ORourke

"Inclusion of Washington at the expense of both Axar and Kuldeep, India lacking confidence in their batting order and really are feeling under pressure".

Is it really a good move?

Surprised with the three changes or they were all warranted. Personally, I feel Washington's inclusion is a bit of a surprise. Thought Kuldeep bowled well in the first Test. He troubled the NZ batters the most. Akash for Siraj and Gill for KL Rahul, I think was on expected lines. For New Zealand, missing Henry is a big blow. Could they have got in Sodhi though?

End of over 1

3 runs

NZ: 3/0

CRR: 3.00

Tom Latham

3 (6b)

Devon Conway

0 (0b)

Jasprit Bumrah

1-0-3-0

Over 4

Runs Scored: 11

0 1 N 0 4 1 4

Score after 4 overs

NZ 18-0

Tom Latham12(15)Devon Conway5(10)

Akash Deep

2-0-15-0

Is a wicket round the corner?

Bumrah is very good in this over.

"While all the talk about KL vs SK is on, I think Sundar's inclusion is interesting. Based on recent form, but more importantly it's a chance for him to audition for Ashwin's spot. Axar threatens Jaddu. KY isn't near the bowling all-rounder that India needs, especially if they want to play 3 quicks when away."

Over 5

Runs Scored: 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

Score after 5 overs

NZ 18-0

Devon Conway5(16)Tom Latham12(15)

Jasprit Bumrah

3-2-3-0

Another maiden from Bumrah