By: Sandipan Bose
There is too much noise surrounding the 500th Test match in Kanpur’s Green Park stadium. And, the reason for this is an historic occasion in Indian cricket.
The former Indian captains are invited. The BCCI bigwigs will be at the occasion, alongwith some of the top Uttar Pradesh politicians. The players are naturally excited to become a part of history.
But deep down, they also know that the 500th Test match is just another game. They are expected to start with a bang because this is the 1st Test of the series. All the razzmatazz surrounding the 500th Test is only off the field.
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On it, it’s business as usual. It’s again come down to who is going to open the innings with whom, who is going to be the one-down batsman, how many spinners are going to make it to the playing XI, will India go ahead with four bowlers or five bowlers, who will replace the ill Ishant Sharma? So on and so fourth.
The Indian team was robbed of the opportunity to enhance the series winning margin in the West Indies. Now they are extremely eager to win the Test series against the New Zealand by a handsome margin.
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On a spinning track that will help the home team. The biggest challenge for New Zealand would be to keep the Indian spinners at bay. If the visitors are able to play against the Indian spinners with certain degree of authority, you can expect the series to be interesting.
With the kind of form, a spinner like Ravindra Jadeja is in, not many would have the better off him. Even Ravichandran Ashwin would be itching to come out with his best performance at home while leg-spinner Amit Mishra would be already plotting how to artfully flummox the opponent batsmen at will.
In other words, this three-match series is a battle between Indian spinners and the New Zealand batsmen!
