Ross Taylor

New Zealand’s Ross Taylor who bats in the middle-order position believes that the visitors can put pressure on their formidable opponents in the 2^nd Test having gained lots of confidence from the performance in the first Test at Motera, Ahmedabad.

“We try to take the confidence from Chris Martin’s spell in the second innings of the 1^st Test and hope to come up with real good performances,” Ross told the media persons after his team had a 3 hour training session at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, venue of the second Test from 12^th November onwards.

“This is a new Test and obviously new challenges have to be faced. There are plenty of positives in the first Test. Definitely; we had our moments in the Ahmedabad Test. But, for India both Harbhajan and VVS played really well,” the New Zealand hard hitter said.

“This is the beauty of Test cricket. Both the teams scored 400 plus in the 1^st innings and suddenly Peter Martin’s spell opened up the match for us before the rescue act by Harbhajan and VVS Laxman,” Taylor responded to a question. “I believe that the focus should be on how well we shift mentally to facing the spinners,” he said.

“The Motera wicket was not really helpful for either side, both in terms of batting and bowling. But, still we somehow managed to do well,” Taylor recalled. “I am expecting different conditions here compared to the first Test venue where it was a completely flat wicket. We hope there will be more bounce and turn here,” he stated

“It is a fact that we are not really getting the dream starts from the openers but we will try to improvise on it and I don’t think too much should be read into opener McIntosh’s failure in the first Test. He should come well given the opportunity,” he said.

“It is really wonderful to have put the present day team Invincible India, the No. 1 side in Test cricket, under some sort of pressure in the Motera Test. This especially after the embarrassing whitewash tour of Bangladesh is a dramatic turn-around. We are more motivated now,” the Royal Challengers Bengaluru hard-hitter asserted.

Questioned whether New Zealand can believe they can bowl out India twice in a Test considering even how the lower-order chipped in for the host, Taylor felt Chris Martin’s spell should give a lot of confidence to the other bowlers in the side as well.

Tags: Chris Martin, Cricket, Harbhajan Singh, India, New Zealand, Ross Taylor, Test Cricket, Test Match, VVS Laxman