The second and last match of the Test series between Team India and New Zealand will be played at Hegel Oval Stadium in Christchurch. The match is to be held from 29 February to 4 March. According to Indian time, this match will start at 4 am. In Virat Kohli’s captaincy, team will try its best to win a happy ending here, but there are many things which are coming in the way of this dream …
The Indian team will play a match for the first time at the Hegley Oval Stadium (Hagley Oval, Christchurch) in Christchurch. India has not played any matches in any format in this stadium built in 1851. In a line, no Indian has experience of playing here. Captains, coaches and players can only guess the pitch and its mood based on expert comments. On the other hand, this field is the Kiwi players’ own, so he knows all things perfectly.
Indian captain Virat Kohli has not been able to do anything special on the tour. Apart from them Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw and Rishabh Pant were completely flopped in the first Test. In this way, the biggest weapon of Team India has proved to be a weak link.
Jasprit Bumrah, who returned from injury, is yet to be seen in rhythm. He has managed to take just 7 wickets on tour, playing 5 T20s, 3 ODIs and 1 Test. Even in the ODI series, his account was not open. If India is to return to victory, Bumrah will have to get form.
Captain Virat Kohli is most criticized after the defeat in the first Test. Former cricketer VVS Laxman had said that Virat Kohli is captaining more defensively, whereas aggression is needed here. The new balls should give the fast bowlers a chance, but they gave opportunities to the spinner (R. Ashwin). The defensive style was also seen in Kohli’s batting.
The most important thing to go against India is that here the hosts have played 6 Tests and won 4. He has lost to Australia in just one match, while he has drawn in a match against England. In the last match played here (excluding the Cansil match against Bangladesh), he defeated Sri Lanka by a big margin of 423 runs. In such a situation, the Indian team will need to play cautiously.