Kanpur: The much awaited series between the Men in Blue and The Black Caps is going to begin from September 22 and the venue is Green Park, Kanpur. The last time a Test match was placed at this venue was in November 2009 when India crushed the Sri Lankan team by a margin of Innings and 144 runs due to the efforts of top three of Indian batting line up and some superb bowling spells by S Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh.
But now no one from that playing XI is in the Indian squad for the series. So the challenge for the Indian squad is not easy as far as experience at that particular stadium is concerned.
The NZ team led by Kane Williamson will leave no stone unturned in order to taste the success on the Indian soil. New Zealand have not been able to win a Test series against India in India. The first time they visited India was in 1955-56 and India defeated them 2-0 in the five-match series and the last time was in 2012 when India completed whitewash by defeating 2-0. So they will have to find a way out to change the history.
Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli are among the best players of this time. Both have the passion and they have proved their mettle by playing important role in the success of their respective teams.
The Indian squad has seven specialist batsmen, seven specialist bowlers and one wicketkeeper batsman in the form of W Saha. Virat Kohli is one man army and he is the one who will decide the fate of this series by his batting and captaincy. KL Rahul has proved his worth by scoring hundred against West Indies in the recently concluded Test series. Cheteshwar Pujara scored an unbeaten double hundred in the Duleep Trophy final and led his team to victory. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan are two players who have been provided various opportunities but they have not been able to make it count, so this series is going to be a crucial one if they want to secure their place in the playing XI.
Ajinkya Rahane has also made his mark in the team by scoring runs when team needed him. Murali Vijay needs to work harder because his form has also not been so applauding and there are competitors who are looking at the opening slot. Wriddhiman Saha is definitely in the squad because of his wicket-keeping abilities but he should try to score as much as possible because No. 7 slot becomes a very important one when the team is playing with five specialist bowlers on spin friendly wickets.
Bowling department led by R Ashwin is going to play an important role .The selectors have included four fast bowlers and three spinners which has provided Kohli to go with a full-fledged bowling line-up. Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav need to perform well in order to get in playing XI because may be only two of them would be in the playing XI due to spin-friendly wickets.
Amit Mishra and Ravindra Jadeja along with Ashwin would need to come up with better performances so that the opposition is bowled out cheaply on turning tracks. So, the probable playing XI could be Dhawan, Vijay, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Saha, Ashwin, Jadeja, Ishant, Bhuvi and Shami.