NEW DELHI: Despite India’s back-to-back Test defeats against New Zealand, visiting captain Tom Latham maintains that the Indian team continues to impress without any major weaknesses.
New Zealand reached a remarkable milestone by securing their first Test series win in India, winning the opening match in Bengaluru by eight wickets and then claiming a decisive 113-run victory in Pune.
While India is facing comprehensive challenges in all departments in the current series, the New Zealand team, which put in flawless performances throughout their tour, made encouraging remarks about their opponents.
“India have a strong team, things obviously haven’t gone the way they would have liked over the last few weeks but that doesn’t make them a bad team overnight,” Latham told reporters ahead of New Zealand’s training session Wankhede Stadium.
“They have superstars from (No.) 1 to 15 in their squad and we expect them to give their best tomorrow and again a new challenge for both teams, a new surface.”
“I’m sure they know a surface well and a surface they know well. “So I certainly don’t think they have any weaknesses – they’re a quality team and it’s going to be another great fight,” Latham added.
With New Zealand leading 2-0, a clean victory over India is possible, although Latham remains cautious about the prospect.
“We’ve obviously done a lot of good over the last few weeks but for us the focus in every friendly is on winning key moments and not necessarily the result…”
“Obviously that’s the byproduct of putting things together back-to-back, back-to-back good training sessions. So yeah, different pitch, different conditions, it’s obviously a lot hotter out there than what we’ve experienced over the last couple of weeks,” he said.
Latham, who took over as New Zealand’s captain ahead of this tour, was pleased with his team’s two wins, which boosted the first World Test champions’ hopes of reaching another final.
Before this tour, New Zealand’s chances of a second appearance in the WTC final were slim, but now they need to secure wins in all four remaining Tests to stay in the race. In addition to the upcoming third Test against India, New Zealand will face England in a three-Test home series.
But once again Latham chose to play down the significance of their performance, saying: “The nice thing about this team is that we’re a reasonably balanced team when it comes to results, I think, not so well, but also when you know the results are going well.” going well.
“We’re trying to keep things as balanced as possible and there’s no bigger carrot when it comes to what lies ahead when you know if we’re successful in this game.”
“We always focus on the process, what it looks like from the start of the game, and adapt to the game situation and requirements as the game progresses,” he said.
Latham explained that New Zealand’s focus remains on the task ahead and not on celebrating becoming the first New Zealand team to beat India on home soil in almost 70 years.
“The boys had a fantastic celebration last week and came here yesterday. We’re a bit shocked by the heat, it was pretty hot out there, but yeah, another challenge and you know we’ll definitely look for it.” We’re looking forward to what’s presented to us this week,” he said.
When asked whether test and series victories abroad should have more weight in the WTC points system, Latham expressed his satisfaction with the current constellation.
“I didn’t necessarily think about it. The introduction of the World Test Championship over the last five (to) six years has been fantastic and the context it has created Test cricketinstead of bilateral series, was fantastic,” he said.
“We’ve probably seen a few more results in terms of games that have certainly been played recently, so the context now being given to Test cricket is great.”
“When you’re in a position with the first (winning team) and you’re successful, you get a taste of what that success feels like and once you’ve done it once, you want to do it again,” he added.