Former New Zealand batsman John Wright warned Daniel Vettori's men from taking on India in seamer friendly pitches saying the move could backfire
Former New Zealand batsman John Wright on Tuesday warned Daniel Vettori's men from taking on India in seamer friendly pitches saying the move could backfire in the forthcoming series.
The last time India toured New Zealand six years ago they failed to settle down on the fast tracks and lost the Test series 0-2 and the one-dayers 2-5.
But Wright, who coached India from 2000 and 2005, said New Zealand would be asking for trouble if they employ the same gameplan for the visitors are well equipped to beat Vettori's team at their own game.
"The advantage India have this time is that, whatever conditions are rolled out by the hosts, they have the attack to make the most of them.
"They have a lot of firepower to call on and I'd imagine New Zealand will want to do just the opposite this time and ensure the pitches are pretty flat. But India will possibly want to settle a few old scores after what happened in 2002-03," Wright said.
The former Kiwi batsman was highly impressed with Ishant Sharma and said he will be lethal when he will bowl under favourable conditions.
"India must be very excited about his potential. We've only really seen him bowling in subcontinental or Australian conditions, where it's pretty hard work for the pacemen," Wright said.
"You'd expect once he gets to a place like New Zealand or England, where the conditions favour the seamers more, he'll be at least as influential again. You can't overplay his importance right now," Wright said.
Wright said what makes India a very dangerous side now was the deadly combination of a lethal attack and very strong batting line-up.
"That's probably the biggest difference between the India side of today, and the combinations of previous years: the bowling.
"It now has everything – pace, swing, left-arm variation, wrist-spin and finger-spin. When I was there things were just starting to turn but now you really see the difference.
"It used to be that the most successful Indian sides were renowned for their batting. These days the batting's still strong but India have made huge gains in terms of the bowling. They've probably got the best attack in world cricket at the moment, when you think about it.
"And the good news is that the gain hasn't come at the expense of the batting. Any side with VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir and Mahendra Singh Dhoni is going to run up some totals," he said.
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