IMAGE: New Zealand's Mitchell Santner is congratulated after picking up his sixth wicket against India in the second Test match in Pune. Photograph: BCCIA first ever series loss at home to New Zealand notwithstanding, India still have the "wood on us" while playing on turning wickets, said Kiwis spinner Ajaz Patel in Mumbai on Wednesday.
New Zealand have outplayed India on all fronts in their backyard so far in the three-Test series, particularly in the spin department as they head into the third and final match starting here on Friday with an unassailable lead of 2-0.
While New Zealand hammered India in a rain-truncated opening Test at Bengaluru by eight wickets, exposing their shortcomings on a challenging pitch at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, the world No 2 side was given a taste of its own medicine on a spin-friendly track in Pune in the second Test, which the hosts lost by 113 runs.
Ahead of the final Test at the Wankhede Stadium, another spin-friendly track is in making despite the struggles of the Indian batters.
Patel hoped that New Zealand, who have an opportunity to inflict a 3-0 whitewash on India, would need to continue to make all the right moves despite the hosts being more adept in playing on such tracks.
"India still have the wood on us when it comes to playing on turning wickets, and traditionally, the Indian batters have done well in turning surfaces," Patel told the media after New Zealand's training session.
"Obviously, they haven't had maybe as much success as they would have liked in this series so far but they're certainly an opposition that are very, very skilled and not the easiest to come up against."
"Their skill set is very vast and for us as a spin group, especially it's about being able to control what we can control and making sure that we can apply pressure for long periods of time and making sure that we're delivering the best balls on a given surface," he added.
New Zealand's accuracy and recentness in attack, both with the bat and the ball, has been the feature of their first-ever series win in India and Patel acknowledged that the visitors will need to stick to the basics.
"It is really about continuing to challenge them. As a batter it's not easy out there when you're facing a ball that's turning as much, and so it's about us making sure we put the balls in good areas for long periods of time," he said.
"On the flip side, India have got phenomenal spinners so our batters are trying to do the opposite and they're trying to create opportunities to score runs," he added.
Patel, who created history here three years ago by claiming 10/119 to become only the third spinner in Test cricket to take all 10 wickets in an innings, said the pitch for the upcoming contest looked different from the one before.
"Being back in Mumbai is always quite special and it's a place I call home as well. Having the opportunity to play out here again is quite special. To be honest, after my 10-wicket haul, I wasn't sure whether I'd get another opportunity to play out here again throughout my career," he said.
"To be honest with you my memory is very poor so I don't exactly remember the surface that well but one thing I do remember was it looked a lot drier to start with," he added.
Patel, who had to play second fiddle to fellow left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner in the Pune Test, said he was happy to keep exerting pressure on India from the other end.
"It's (about) looking at what roles you're playing for the team when it comes to a bowling perspective," he said.
"Mitch (Santner) was bowling exceptionally well from the other end so for me it was really important that from my end while I'm still trying to take wickets, I'm also performing the holding role and trying to restrict as many runs as possible so that pressure doesn't come back on us.
"The way Mitch was bowling, there was no real need for me to try too many things. It was about trying to keep it as simple as possible. Once again, going into a new surface and a new game that may completely flip again," he said.
