I suspect New Zealand don’t mind that too much and actually use it to their advantage. Over the years they have produced some fine cricketers; not Hadlee and Crowe, they were legends, but others who were very good. And we are not even talking about the John Wrights, the Andrew Jones’, the Ian Smiths’, the Stephen Flemings, the Shane Bonds — in conditions as they exist there, the likes of Dion Nash, Gavin Larsen, Darryl Tuffey and Jacob Oram were very effective and you under-estimated them at your own peril. They were like snipers who knew their terrain and before you knew it you were ambushed.

So why should it be any different this time? For two or three reasons. India now have the bowling to use the conditions. Zaheer Khan is bowling beautifully, Ishant Sharma will love the conditions there and there is decent back up bowling. That is critical. The third seamer, as Javagal Srinath recently talked about, can be unheralded but crucial. Munaf Patel would be just right for that role provided between him and the BCCI, somebody can find out what lies within that body. But Dhawal Kulkarni is a very good find as well, eager and nippy.

The other reason is that India play the one-dayers first and often pitches in these games don’t sway matches too much. India’s key players will have spent enough time there by the time the Test matches come around and there isn’t a lot of difference between the two teams now. The challenge though will lie with people like Yuvraj, Raina and Gambhir getting acclimatised quickly. They are the bold, aggressive face of Indian batting and that has always been India’s stronger arm.

... contd.