The white-ball warm-up is over and the series that matters for the World Test Championship starts on Thursday. New Zealand host India in the first of two Tests at the Basin Reserve in Wellington from 19 November. Play begins at 11am local time, which is 3:30am IST. The second Test follows at Hagley Oval in Christchurch from 27 November.
Both sides arrive with something to prove. New Zealand won 2-1 in England in June and, two years ago, became the first team to beat India 3-0 in a Test series in India. India have not won a Test in New Zealand since 2009, and on their last visit in 2020 they lost both Tests.
New Zealand squad
Tom Latham (captain), Tom Blundell (wk), Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Nathan Smith, Blair Tickner, Will Young.
The headline returns are Conway and Ravindra, who both missed part of the white-ball leg through injury, and Duffy, who skipped the England tour to be at home for the birth of his first child. Blundell has been picked despite a quadriceps problem. Head coach Rob Walter has said the final calls on all three of the recovering players will depend on fitness checks this week. Will O’Rourke, Zak Foulkes and Ben Sears are all unavailable through injury, and Kane Williamson’s name is not in the squad.
India squad
Shubman Gill (captain), KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Sai Sudharsan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Anshul Kamboj, Gurnoor Brar. India made one late change, releasing Kuldeep Yadav and calling up Brar. Read why Brar got the nod.
Probable XIs
Neither side has named its team, so treat these as our best guess.
- New Zealand: Tom Latham (c), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Tom Blundell (wk), Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Jacob Duffy.
- India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill (c), Sai Sudharsan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep.
If Blundell fails his fitness test, expect a reshuffle with Phillips or Nicholls moving up. India’s last call is between Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna and the in-form Brar for the third seamer’s spot.
Pitch and conditions
The Basin is usually at its liveliest on the first morning, with grass on the surface and swing in the air. It tends to flatten out for batting by day two or three. Wellington’s wind is the wildcard: it can push a bowler’s line around and makes one end much harder work than the other. Captains who win the toss here often bowl first, and India should expect a long first session against the new ball if they are put in.
India at the Basin Reserve
This has been a hard ground for India. They have played eight Tests here and won only one, back in 1968. New Zealand have won five, including a 10-wicket win on India’s last visit in 2020. The other two were draws. The 2014 match is the one Indian fans remember for the wrong reasons: Brendon McCullum made 302 and shared a 352-run stand with BJ Watling to turn 94 for 5 into 680 for 8 declared. For the full history, see our India in New Zealand Test records page.
Key battles
- Matt Henry vs India’s top order: Henry ripped through Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer in one over in the fourth ODI. Here’s how that over unfolded. Neither Rohit nor Kohli is in the Test squad, but Henry with a new red ball at the Basin is a serious test for Jaiswal and Rahul.
- Bumrah vs Latham and Conway: New Zealand’s openers leave well and make bowlers work. Bumrah’s first spell could decide how the match goes.
- Pant vs Santner: Pant is fit again after a long lay-off. Santner will be New Zealand’s main spinner, and Pant’s way of hitting spin could swing a session.
Our view
New Zealand at home, with the Basin’s seam movement, start as slight favourites. India’s pace attack is good enough to win here, though, and the batting will decide it. If India’s top four can get through the first hour on day one, this could be much closer than India’s record at the ground suggests.
Featured image: ShakyIsles / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
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