Peeling it back: Williamson promises quintessential NZ approach to handle Indian pace

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson on Thursday said his team will rely on its tried and tested patient approach to tackle Indian pace battery of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma in Test series starting here on Friday. 

Williamson said it will be "a lot different" to facing Australian speedsters in ir own den. New Zealand are still reeling from a 0-3 thrashing in ir last away Test series in Australia where Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc made life miserable for Black Caps batsmen. Asked how different it will be facing a quality Indian pace attack at home, Williamson replied: "A lot of differences I suppose, conditions being first one.""India have a world-class pace attack that has performed in all conditions so a really exciting opportunity for our team."Williamson said Kiwis will be going back to ir style of patient cricket which has yielded results at home since 2017.

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'Peeling it back': Kane Williamson

"So it is peeling it back. Obviously coming back here from Australia, back into Test cricket, guys are really looking forward to get into it," Williamson said."It's taking some learnings from that. But it's in some ways trying to peel back, (that's) style of cricket we play in New Zealand and (we will) connect with that again," he added. 
 

pitch at Basin Reserve

Basin Reserve pitch, at least on first two days, has a lot of juice and Williamson was asked if India's batting line-up would be vulnerable in se conditions."I think if you can execute your plans on a surface that's going to provide some assistance n it's a challenge for anybody," he explained. "But we've seen here on se surfaces in NZ, that re is some assistance early on but that can also, pace and some of bounce you can get can provide opportunities for scoring.

"So re's a balance re and yeah it's never a given even when surface is green that's for sure," he added. His opposite number Virat Kohli's wicket is important but that's t sole focus of his team, said Black Caps skipper. "Obviously, Virat's best or one of in all formats without a doubt. y're a quality side. y're leading Test championships and re's a reason for it."You certainly don't focus on one player and I guess that brings us back to focus on our own team's approach."

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(Im Courtesy: AP)