Last week was no less than a nightmare for the Indian team, which was on top in the points tally of the World Test Championship. New Zealand first all out India for just 46 runs and then defeated Team India at home after 36 years by winning by seven wickets. After trailing 0-1 in the series, India will now have to counterattack in the second Test match to be played in Pune from tomorrow. Will have to prove himself on the pitch of Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium.
How is Pune’s pitch?
The ground is all set to host the second Test match between India and New Zealand. Only two Test matches have been played in the stadium so far, in which the team batting first has won. That means winning the toss will be very important. Here the average score of the first innings is 430 runs and the average score of the second innings is 190 runs. On average, 237 runs are scored in the third innings and 107 runs are scored in the fourth innings. The biggest score here is in the name of India, which it made 601/5 against South Africa. The lowest score was from Australia, which recorded figures of 105/10. We can expect to see a rank turner in Pune, where it will be extremely difficult to score runs in the fourth innings and the spinners will help.
India won one match, lost one
Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium is also known as Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium. Only two Test matches have been played on this ground so far, in which India’s record has been mixed. After suffering a crushing 333-run defeat to Australia in 2017 under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, India defeated South Africa by an innings in 2019. This time also Virat Kohli was captaining. Virat Kohli’s unbeaten inning of 254 runs played an important role in defeating the Proteas by an innings and 137 runs.
What will be India’s strategy?
On the eve of the match, India head coach Gautam Gambhir defended KL Rahul, who is struggling with poor form, saying that the opinion of the team management matters. No criticism on social media. Rahul could not even open his account in the first innings of the Bengaluru Test against New Zealand and scored 12 runs in the second innings.