New Zealand banking on Pune pitch to give them the upper hand

Tom Latham, the captain of New Zealand, has downplayed the speculation surrounding the Pune pitch ahead of the second Test against India. The pitch is expected to be slow, dry and made of black soil, which could potentially benefit both teams' spinners if conditions become extreme. Latham stated that while the pitch may offer assistance to the visitors' spinners, his team is prepared for any challenge that comes their way.

"I guess whatever we're presented with, it's about, for us, trying to adapt as quick as we can; that's something that we can't control with the wicket," Latham said. "So it's about trying to go out there and adapt as quick as we can, and if it's going to be a wicket that turns a little bit more, then we've obviously got four spinners in our line-up, so fingers crossed that will play into their hands, but yeah, as I said, it's about trying to adapt on the run, and try not to go into the game with too many preconceived ideas."

Allrounder Rachin Ravindra, who is among New Zealand's spin options, agreed with his captain. When Pune had served up a sharp turner in 2017, it had backfired on India, with left-arm fingerspinner Steve O'Keefe spinning Australia to victory inside three days. O'Keefe took 12 wickets, which was as many as R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja combined.

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"If it's an extreme wicket, it almost brings us into the game more," Ravindra said. "If you win the toss, all of a sudden you take a couple of wickets and you're right into the game on a wicket that's pretty spicy and turns a lot. As a team, it's about accepting what's in front of us. We can't change that. We can't control what wicket they're going to roll out.

"But we can control our attitude, how we approach it, and each and every position we get into with the bat or consistency with the ball. We're excited for the challenge, whatever it may be."

New Zealand had picked three spinners for the first Test in Bengaluru, but didn't need any of them with the ball in the first innings in seaming conditions. Their workload, however, could be much heavier across both innings in Pune. New Zealand are also open to selecting an extra spinner in place of a seamer if the conditions dictate the need for it. Offspin-bowling allrounder Michael Bracewell has returned home for the birth of his second child, but they have other options in Mitchell Santner (left-arm fingerspinner) and Ish Sodhi (wristspinner).

Rachin Ravindra played a classy knock in the first Test

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BCCI

"Yeah, I obviously had a little bit of a think around what that [the playing XI] may look like, but we'll make those final decisions after I speak to you guys, Latham said. "So yeah, as I said, it's just about trying to make sure we adapt as best we can, and try to get a little bit of information from previous games here, and also the practice wickets that we're on will hopefully be something around, or similar to what we're getting, so I think that's the beauty of our team, is trying not to go into the game with too many preconceived ideas, and trying to make sure we adapt as best we can."

Latham also looked back fondly on the success in Bengaluru - he became only the third New Zealander to captain the side to a Test win in India - but he quickly shifted the focus to Pune, where New Zealand hope to go one better and seal the series.

"Yeah, obviously very special, I guess to be… there's myself, Graham Dowling and John Wright, to be in this position is really special, Latham said. "But for me it was a team effort, it wasn't just me that obviously contributed to the win, you know, the guys did a fantastic job, and obviously that was last week, we obviously celebrated what was a special performance.

"But our attention turned quickly to this game, and we're trying not to, I guess, rest on what happened last week, as trying to take the confidence from last week, and take that into this game, and hopefully hit the ground running."