9.30am Here we go again. Jasprit Bumrah with the new ball. Over the wicket to Tom Latham. (Still, I know). Three slips and a gully
9.25am How ya doin’? Lot of debate around India selection, I see. The way I see it is this: KL Rahul vs Sarfaraz Khan is horses for courses. Sarfaraz plays at home, Rahul in Australia. Washington for Kuldeep seems to be lengthening the batting and also take the ball away. Akash for Siraj will hurt Siraj, but this is the India Test team, they demand a lot of their players.
As an aside, from what I hear from pitch reports and captains, this pitch should turn from day one.
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With that, here’s welcoming Sidharth Monga for his first commentary stint of the day.
In the lead-up to the Australia-India series, we are asking our readers to help identify the greatest individual Indian performance in Australia in this century. We have shortlisted 16 performances, and the first set of match-ups are live. You can vote for Rahul Dravid’s epic efforts or R Ashwin’s mastery, Shardul Thakur’s all-round heroics or Cheteshwar Pujara’s Adelaide resistance, Sachin Tendulkar’s Sydney masterclass or Virender Sehwag’s Adelaide aggression, and Jasprit Bumrah’s genius or Pujara’s grit. Hurry up and make your choices.
Venky: “NZ has lot of lefties.. hence inclusion of Sundar is justified… “
Dev: “should have gone with Kuldeep, he too brings the ball away for lefties if thats what they were thinking while picking washi. “
9.15am What’s the consensus guys? 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?
Pushker: “Inclusion of Washington at the expense of both Axar and Kuldeep, India lacking confidence in their batting order and really are feeling under pressure”
Playing XIs
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah
New Zealand: Tom Latham (capt), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wk), Glenn Phillips, Tim Southee, Mitchell Santner, Ajaz Patel, William ORourke
Toss: New Zealand win the toss and elect to bat. One change for them. Matt Henry is out with a glute niggle, Mitchell Santner comes in. Three changes for India with Siraj, KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav missing out. Gill, Washington Sundar and Akash Deep come in
Tom Latham: It [the pitch] might produce a bit of spin as we expect from his part of the town. It was a really proud moment [the win]. We celebrated that but our focus has turned to Pune. It is just adapting to the surface and adapt as soon as possible. We have a good opportunity with the bat. One change.
Rohit Sharma: I would have batted as well . Whatever the pitch is we have to play good cricket. Lot of positives. No matter what the situation of the game is, you always try and come back into the game. That is what we did. At the end, not a lot of runs on the board. A little drier [the pitch]. We do understand how important the first 10-15 overs. We have made three changes.
Here’s an update from our man at the ground, Deivarayan Muthu: Good morning. It’s a hot and humid day in Pune and overhead conditions have remained clear since it drizzled in the city two days out of this Test. For India, Akash Deep is marking his run-up and at one of the practice pitches, Washington is wheeling away with Ashwin. Jadeja is also having a crack along with them, with Gambhir overseeing them. For New Zealand, Phillips is having at go at the other practice pitch along with Ish Sodhi
Pitch report from Simon O’Doull and Dinesh Karthik: First up the colour of the pitch remains the same, black soil. But this is local black soil, the moisture retention is a lot more. There is a lot more live grass. That is how black soil pitches behave. A lot more dry and devoid of grass. The team winning the toss should bat. From ball 1 there should be enough for spinners.
8.55am Rishabh Pant is doing wicketkeeping drills. There is no strapping on his knee. Is that a sign that he fit to keep as well? I think I also saw Akash Deep with a measuring tape in his hand. Chances he will get a game? Toss and teams in just a bit
Mark : “Is it fair to say that whoever wins the toss is going to bat first? For NZ I consider the only change should be to bring Sodhi in for Southee. If we only have 2 seam bowlers it should be O’Rourke and Henry. I think Sodhi would be better in these conditions than Santner. I fear they’ll drop Henry and bring in Santner.”
Shashwat: “Does India’s batting lineup has the solidity of playing attritional cricket when required? In the absence of Pujara, it’s difficult to find a solid anchor in this side.”
8.50am ICYMI Kane Williamson is not available for the second Test as well as he recovers from a groin injury. For India, though, Pant and Gill likely to be fit to play. But then who does Gill come in for – Sarfaraz or Rahul? Gautam Gambhir has vehemently backed Rahul come good amid mounting scrutiny on his recent form in Test cricket. Daryl Mitchell meanwhile says that ‘We can’t change the wicket, but we’ll find a way to adapt’.
Anand: “First things first..hows the Weather forecast for the next 5 days in Pune..” Looks to be clear for now
samyak jain: “@Chris. how about we both go happy? NZ win the toss and India wins the match. you take 1 streak and we keep 1 streak “
Chris: “Twelve years since India lost a test series at home, twelve years since NZ won a toss in a test in India – can we break two streaks in one go?”
8.40am A number of talking points ahead of the Test, but firstly here’s Karthik Krishnaswamy’s preview where he talks about how India have made every effort possible to restore to this series the one major ingredient it had lacked up to this point: home advantage. How’s the Pune pitch going to play? Nagraj Gollapudi has an update.
8.30am Hello, hello. How is everyone doing? It’s Test match morning. All eyes will be on Pune today. Can India make a comeback and square the series after New Zealand won the first Test in Bengaluru? Can the visitors do what no team has managed in India since 2012 – win a Test series in the country? With New Zealand winning the first Test, a lot of tantalizing prospects have suddenly emerged, and this Pune Test should be a cracker. I am Ashish Pant and will be joined by Sidharth Monga as we look to bring to all details from the second Test.