Ross Taylor weighs in on the debate surrounding Indian pitches
Admitting to the difficulty of playing on subcontinental pitches, New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor has shed light into his strategy against India’s menacing spinners in the upcoming 3-Test series.
Ahead of his side’s warm-up match against Mumbai at the Feroz Shah Kotla, the 32-year old did not read too much into South Africa’s struggles in the country last year and braced for traditional Indian turning tracks.
When asked about the recent trend of home teams dominating, Taylor quipped, “I don’t know if there is one particular reason. If you referring to India, they are just a very good team and it is hard to beat them at home. In terms of overseas victory for us, we have not won a lot of series, we have won Tests overseas but series have been hard to come by. But, that is the challenge of Test cricket. Hope we play good cricket here.”
With the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra licking their lips at the prospect of bowling on spin-friendly surfaces, utilizing cross-batted shots could be the way forward for visiting batsmen.
He felt, “The sweep shot is something that I played a lot at the start of my career, it is also something I tried to get away from especially in Tests. But anytime you play in the sub-continent, you have have got to be able to play sweep or a cut shot. We have players who can play reverse sweep. So, we got to see what happens and play to your strengths.”
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In order to minimize home advantage, authorities in the county circuit have tried to do away with the toss and let visiting teams make the call. However, the right-hander remained unsure about the idea’s viability at international level.
Taylor believed, “I played county cricket this summer. I guess it was for teams to stop producing a favorable wicket. Everyone has been talking about the South Africa series (in India), the games were over pretty quickly. Once again it is not for me to speculate, what the wicket is going to be. They always do turn over here whether it is day one day
three.”
“Coming back to toss, it was a bit of a success in England. But, I still feel it has a place in cricket. I think all teams are playing aggressive cricket. Anytime you play in India, it is a challenge.”
The Tests get underway at Green Park in Kanpur from the 22nd of this month before the action shifts to Eden Gardens followed by the Holkar Stadium in Indore.