India will be looking to salvage lost pride and redeem some of their giant reputation at home to prevent a rampaging New Zealand from clean sweeping the series when the third Test begins at the Wankhede Stadium, here on Friday.
Rohit Sharma’s men have been under the pump right from the first Test where they lost to the visitors by eight wickets after an almighty collapse for 46 in the first innings and then losing their way in Pune again in the first innings to crash to their first home Test series defeat in 12 years.
Unusual times to be an Indian captain and an Indian coach but Rohit and Gautam Gambhir are putting on a brave front.
Although, they concede India have been poor with the bat especially against spin, once considered their biggest strength in home conditions, Rohit was also thoughtful while not going all out in terms of criticism against the players stating they were playing with a certain positive intent and approach that unfortunately didn’t come off in their favour in the series.
The big two in batting, skipper Rohit and Virat Kohli, have been downers in the series playing nowhere close to the huge reputations they possess and hopefully the experienced batters would look to come good for a final time in the series.
The likes of Sarfaraz Khan, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant have been great positives as far as Indian batting is concerned and the home side would look to these three to come good on match day.
The first two among those names are home boys in Mumbai and would be extremely familiar with the conditions and the behaviour of the red soil at the Wankhede having played here numerous times over the years.
The first hand knowledge of the conditions would certainly help but its all about executing their plans come game time.
Sarfaraz’s 150 in Bengaluru would have done him a world of confidence but consistency is the key in international cricket and the young lad would know that too well after having a not so great outing in Pune.
Washington Sundar and Jaiswal were the silver linings for India in the second Test in Pune. The former with his career-best figures of 7/59 in the first innings and a match haul of 13 wickets while the latter struck a quick-fire 77 in the second innings that gave India some hope and impetus during their chase of 359.
India would hope that all their learnings from the first two Tests would be put to good use as they look to stay on track for the WTC Final in 2025. They currently lead the standngs with a percentage of 62.82 and will stay on top if they win in Mumbai come Friday where they can also salvage a storied reputation of being impenetrable at home for the longest time.
New Zealand, on the other hand, are on an unprecedented high after toppling the greatest home Test team of the last decade with their collective will and individual brilliance.
Tom Latham’s side would attempt a clean sweep riding on the dynamism of their batters and the imagination and skill of their bowlers, particularly spinners like Mitchell Santner, Glenn Phillips and their Mumbai homie Ajaz Patel.
Santner was a riot in Pune and instrumental in India’s downfall with his subtle variations and accurate lengths that make it extremely difficult for the batsmen to put him away.
The left-arm spinner and his side would be looking for an encore at the Wankhede to cap off what has been probably New Zealand’s biggest achievement as a Test side in their cricketing history.
