India will come back bigger and stronger: Taylor

Hamilton, Jan 21 (IANS) New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor, a former skipper, expects India to come hard at them in the second ODI that will be played here Wednesday.

Taylor said World No.1 India, who suffered a 24-run defeat in the first ODI in Napier, will come out bigger and stronger.

“They’ll be better for the hit-out and I’m sure them being the No 1 one-day team in the world, they’ll come back bigger and stronger, Taylor was quoted as saying by Stuff.co.nz

Taylor feels India will now be better prepared and sharper than ever before. The Indians had no warm-up game in New Zealand ahead of the series.

Conditions at the Seddon Park here would suit the Indians the most. The track here is slower than the one they encountered at the McLean Park and Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will have some role.

“The wicket in Napier is probably one of the fastest wickets that we have in New Zealand. It was probably a little bit slower than what it normally is, it was probably prepared a couple of days earlier for whatever reason. But this wicket here is a little bit slower and there probably is going to be one boundary that is going to be a little bit bigger than the other, so we need to be smart in the way we do approach that,” he said.

Taylor, who struck 55 off 82 balls that had just one four in the last match, defended his slow knock saying his role is to set the platform.

“I think my role is to bat in that middle order and set the platform for the guys coming through. We know we’ve got the power hitters in Brendon (McCullum), Corey (Anderson) and Ronchs (Luke Ronchi).

“If I can do a little bit more of the donkey work and let them come out and express themselves later on (I’d be happy). I hope to do the hard work and express myself afterwards as well, and not get out in the power play like in Napier. I’m happy with that role and hopefully it can continue throughout the series,” he said.

With Adam Milne ruled out for six weeks with an abdominal strain, Canterbury paceman Hamish Bennett has been called into the team and trained with them yesterday, though it’s likely Kyle Mills will come into the playing XI.

Taylor said it was a big disappointment to lose fast bowler Adam Milne, who has been ruled out for six weeks due to abdominal injury. Milne had clocked 153kmph in Napier.

It has been raining here over the past two days and Taylor said they have to wait and watch.

“The rain radar hasn’t been favourable to us in the past with telling us it’s going to rain and it doesn’t and vice versa. But we’ll have to have to wait and see,” Taylor said.