New Zealand coach Gary Stead confident of his team tackling the Indian spinners

New Zealand coach Gary Stead has a lot on his plate before the third ODI between New Zealand and India begins on January 28 at the Bay Leaf Oval, Mount Maunganui. India won the second ODI by 90 runs to go 2-0 up in the five-match series. The visitors had put up a solid total of 324/4 batting first with Rohit Sharma making 87 and Dhawan scoring 66. MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, and Ambati Rayudu made scores of 40 odd runs to propel the score past 300.

In reply, the Kiwis were never in the game, as Kuldeep picked 4/45 and Bhuvneshwar and Chahal chipped in with 2 wickets each. The biggest headache for the Kiwis has been the rampage caused by Indian spinners. While Kuldeep Yadav has scalped four wickets each in the two matches, even Chahal has managed to trouble the Black Caps. The duo has got support from Kedar Jadhav, who has chipped in with a wicket each in the two games.

Stead highlights team’s success against Sri Lanka

The New Zealand batsmen have had no answer to the Indian spinners and pressure is building on the Kiwi batting lineup to find a solution to counter these spinners. Gary Stead, however, looked to back his batsmen and highlighted success against Sri Lanka as proof that New Zealand can do well against Indian spinners as well.

“It’s not that we can’t play spin bowling, we’ve just taken some options that haven’t been the best options at times, I have faith in our guys. We played the spin bowling very well against Sri Lanka and they had a lot of spinners, so it’s not like we can’t, we just haven’t done it effectively,” Gary Stead said in a pre-match conference.

“I guess, as a batting unit, that’s going to be our challenge going into the next three games, to build those partnerships. It’s got to be the top order that scores the majority of the runs and we haven’t done that in the two games as yet,” Stead added.

Get the latest Cricket News and updates from New Zealand vs India series, Match Predictions, Fantasy Cricket Tips and lots more on CricTracker.com.

~Written by Jatin Sharma