Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Time: 9:30 AM IST
Average score at venue (1st inns): 339
Win percentage while batting first: NA
Pitch conditions:
- With both the teams confined to indoor practises owing to non-seasonal and intense rains in Mumbai, it remains to be seen how much grass is taken off the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium for the second and final Test.
- The pitch at Wankhede Stadium is known to be supportive for fast bowlers since it has red soil providing dangerous bounce and carry, particularly in the first couple of hours of red-ball cricket matches.
Weather prediction:
The city of Mumbai is experiencing non-seasonal rains in the lead up to the second and final Test match, which will also be serving as the series decider after India and New Zealand played out a thrilling draw in Kanpur. It has been raining heavily but the weather is supposed to be clear for most of the days starting on Friday, yet with some cloud cover around. The temperature will be warmer than what it was in Kanpur — with a high of 31°C on Tuesday, December 7 — and humidity levels will hover around 70%.
HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD (overall):
Matches played: 61
India won: 21
New Zealand won: 13
Draw: 27
No result / tied: -
At Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai:
Matches played: 2
India won: 1
New Zealand won: 1
Draw: -
No result / tied: -
Top 3 players from India: Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel
Top 3 players from New Zealand: Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Will Young
Top picks for H2H/WTA contest (top 5 players each):
Top 5 players from India: Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, KS Bharat
Top 5 players from New Zealand: Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Will Young, Tim Southee, Kane Williamson
Q&A:
Should I pick more bowlers, batsmen or all-rounders?
As witnessed in the first match of the series, both fast bowlers and spinners are going to carry great responsibilities in the second match as well. Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson created a lot of problems for the Indian batsmen, whereas the Indian spinners in Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja applied tremendous pressure on the New Zealand batsman in both their innings. Both the teams also have plenty of batsmen who are in form and can produce big innings, something that will be expected from the Indians more, particularly their captain V Kohlii who is making a comeback after a short period of rest.
From which team should I pick more players in my XI? Which team is stronger?
In the first Test at Kanpur, New Zealand showed why they are ranked No 1 in the world and why they were the deserving winners of the first edition of the World Test Championship. New Zealand never gave up the fight even though India applied tremendous pressure on them both with the bat and the ball at the Green Park Stadium. New Zealand will be confident of their chances of recording a series victory, which will be a first for any Kiwi side in their bilateral history, with a win in Mumbai. Both India and New Zealand are extremely strong outfits and it will be a challenge to pick players for fantasy cricket XIs. However, given that India are playing in home conditions and have plenty of firepower in their ranks, they can be expected to come good in Mumbai after a disappointing outcome in Kanpur.
MORE INFORMATION: India will be facing a stern challenge as far as selecting their playing XI is concerned, for the fact that regular captain V Kohlii is making a comeback after a short break and is set to lead the team in the second and final match of the Test series, which is set to serve as a decider. While there are no injury concerns as such in the Indian and Kiwi camps, India will be expecting more from their fast bowlers with their senior most pacer Ishant Sharma having a tough time in Kanpur, where he was outbowled by compatriot Umesh Yadav. New Zealand will also be ready for the challenge and will derive a lot of confidence from their performances across departments in Kanpur.
Players’ form: There are some massive concerns in the Indian camp since their batting mainstays in Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara have had prolonged periods of nonperformance as far as raking up big scores in the only format that they play is concerned. The Indian team are known to operate with five specialist batsmen in Test cricket and can they go on long with two of them being horribly out of form, is a question to be answered by the home team camp. Rahane still has a century to show which he had hit in Melbourne about a year ago, while Pujara last scored a triple-figure knock all the way back in January 2019 against Australia at Sydney. Even V Kohlii has not had much success with the bat in Test cricket with his last century coming in November 2019 in Kolkata against Bangladesh. At the same time, New Zealand will be concerned with the performances that their middle-order produced in both the innings of the Kanpur Test, as Williamson and Ross Taylor cut a sorry figure against relentless Indian bowlers. New Zealand will also want more substance and returns from the likes of Henry Nicholls, Tom Blundell and Jamieson.
Changes in squad (if any): NO
India: Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara / Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane (c), V Kohlii, KS Bharat (wk) / Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav.
New Zealand: Tom Latham (vc), Will Young, Kane Williamson (c), Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, Tom Blundell (wk), Kyle Jamieson, Will Somerville, Ajaz Patel, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner.
Fantasy XI: Tom Latham, Will Young, Shreyas Iyer (c), V Kohlii, KS Bharat (wk), Kyle Jamieson, Ravindra Jadeja (vc), Ravichandran Ashwin, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner.
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India face upbeat New Zealand with series on the line in Mumbai
New Zealand will fancy their chances of recording first-ever Test series victory against India on their own soil when the two teams clash in the second and final Test of their short series — a part of the World Test Championship — at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, starting on Friday.
The Kiwis showcased their mettle and talent as far as skills are concerned in alien conditions in India to walk away with a memorable draw in the first Test at Kanpur’s Green Park stadium, denying India a victory that would have given them an unassailable lead in the series. New Zealand hung on to a memorable draw with one wicket left as bad light halted play once again on the fifth and final day, when 12 minutes were still remaining in the stipulated time to complete the match.
New Zealand found plenty of heroes in Tom Latham, Will Young, Tim Southee and all-rounder Kyle Jamieson who were absolutely brilliant in both the innings of the Kanpur Test. Spinner Ajaz Patel and Will Somerville also had great roles to play towards the ending stages of the Kanpur Test to help New Zealand force a memorable draw — an outcome that will give them confidence to face India in Mumbai.
The visiting side seem to have all bases covered to put up a strong fight on all five days of the Mumbai Test, with their batsmen looking to make most of a pitch that promises to have good amount of bounce and carry after battling it out on a slow, low and turning wicket in Kanpur.
On the other hand, India will be feeling a little bit of pressure after failing to eke out a positive result from the Kanpur Test despite being on top of the game for longer durations. India required to pick 6 wickets in the final session of the Kanpur Test and they got only 5, as they were defied by debutant New Zealand all-rounder Rachin Ravindra and Ajaz Patel in the final session.
Ravindra and Ajaz Patel battled it out for 52 balls to ensure that New Zealand remained in the hunt for a draw, which was enforced by umpires even though there was little time left for playing in Kanpur.
India will be facing a tough challenge of picking their best batting lineup given that regular captain V Kohlii is making a comeback and Shreyas Iyer has kickstarted his Test career in a remarkable manner.
Iyer became the first Indian batsman to have scored a century and a half-century on Test debut in Kanpur, which has certainly posed some extremely tough questions as far as picking non-performing batsmen and Rahane and Pujara is concerned. Both Rahane and Pujara have been backed all along by the Indian team management, including the erstwhile coaching staff of Ravi Shastri, but the returns have not been anywhere up to anyone's liking.
India might also tweak their fast bowling attack given that Ishant Sharma had looked off-colour in Kanpur and Umesh Yadav making all the impression. Axar Patel is a certainty to play along with the likes of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin, who both had a game to remember at Kanpur.
For India, the stand-in wicketkeeper KS Bharat was exceptional behind the wickets but their opening pair in Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal disappointed. While Gill still got a half-century in the first innings, Agarwal continued to struggle for runs as he was snared by Kiwi pacers in both the innings.
This will be the first contest for India with Rahul Dravid and V Kohlii in charge. India will face a stern challenge of facing South Africa in their own backyard in a few days’ time and the Mumbai Test should give the Indians a strong workout ahead of the important tour.
