“I think what we’re presented with is trying to adapt as quickly as possible, that’s something we can’t control with the wickets,” Latham said. “So it’s about going out there and trying to adapt as quickly as possible. If it’s going to be a bit more of a spinning wicket, obviously we’ve got four spinners in our line-up, so fingers crossed. But yeah, like I said, it’s just trying to adapt during the run and too many preconceived notions. “It’s about trying not to get into the game.”
“An extreme wicket would get us more involved in the game,” Ravindra said. “When you win the toss, all of a sudden you take two wickets and you go straight into the game on a wicket that’s pretty spicy and spins a lot. As a team, it’s about accepting what’s in front of us. We can control which wickets they come up with. I can’t.
“But we can control the attitude, the approach, each and every position to be consistent with bat and ball. Whatever it is, we are happy to take on the challenge.”
New Zealand fielded three spinners for the first Test in Bengaluru but did not need any of them with the ball in the first innings in seaming conditions. However, their workload could become much heavier during the two innings in Pune. New Zealand may opt for an additional spinner instead of a seamer, depending on the situation. Offspin bowling all-rounder Michael Bracewell has returned home to give birth to his second child, but Mitchell Santner (left-arm fingerspinner) and Ish Sodhi (wrist spinner) have other options.
“Yes, I’ve definitely given some thought to what that (playing XI) might look like, but the final decision will be made after I’ve spoken to you,” Latham said. “Yeah, like I said, it’s about trying to adapt as best as we can, trying to take a little bit of information from the previous games and the practice wickets that we’re playing are also different from what we’re playing. “I think the strength of our team is that we don’t go into the game with too many preconceptions about what is or will be similar and try to adapt as best we can.”
“But our attention quickly turns to this game and we are trying not to rest on what happened last week. We hope to take the confidence we gained from last week and apply it to this game and be successful.”
