Mitchell Santner affirms he would avoid bowling length at Hardik Pandya

After having a sufficient off period since ICC Champions Trophy 2017 in England, the Kiwis are all set to take the field against a dominant Indian side. The Black Caps would be locking horns with the Men in Blue in a limited overs series consisting of 3 ODIs and 3 T20s in India. It would be a tough task for the visitors to contain this Indian side which is looking invincible in these conditions.

New Zealand’s left arm spinner Mitchell Santner who had a more than decent outing when he last visited the sub-continent country talked about his preparations and challenged in the upcoming series. Santner said that the lengths of the bowling would be the key to the strong Indian batting line-up and especially against Hardik Pandya. As seen in the past few months, all-rounder and big-hitter Hardik Pandya

As seen in the past few months,big-hitting all-rounder Hardik Pandya has shown that he loves to bat against the spinners and has been striking them well. In the ODI series against Australia, the hosts used Pandya as an option to attack the spinners in the middle overs. Santner also praised Pandya and admitted that he has seen his batting and would try to bowl with the right lengths to him.

“He’s a very good striker. He tends to hit down the ground well. I guess the key is to take the length off him, and maybe be happy with singles. He’s a very good player and can hit (big). I saw him hit Zampa for three sixes in an over (during the first ODI against Australia at Chennai),” quoted Mitchell Santner according to TOI.

Mitchell Santner takes notes from Jadeja and Axar

“Once he hits one, he wants to keep going. If you can tie him down or make him hit singles, and then go from there and hopefully he tries to play a big shot and go for a ball that’s not quite there… but yeah, he’s a very good striker (of the ball). So we have to beware (of him),” added the left arm all-rounder.

The 25-year old Kiwi also revealed that he has been learning a lot from videos of some Indian bowlers like Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. “On wickets that offer a little bit, I watched a lot of Axar Patel and Jadeja. They just try to bowl very consistent and good areas and wait for the batsmen to hit a big shot and get out or run past one. I’ve taken a little bit of footage from there,” disclosed Santner.

“It’s tough (bowling in India). They are very good players of spin. (They’ve) grown up playing spin. I just try to keep it pretty simple… try and keep the ball off them… bowl the ball reasonably quicker on the surface and force the batsmen to make a mistake. If you get a few dots and build pressure that way, you can hopefully get a few wickets. That’s what I’ll be trying to do,” concluded Santner while talking about the uphill task of bowling in India.