World Cup 2015: India face different challenges in New Zealand

PERTH: India face a challenge of a different kind when they travel to New Zealand for their last two group matches. They have very little time to get used to the conditions in Hamilton where they take on Zimbabwe on March 10.
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The whole of Saturday was lost in transit from faraway Perth to Hamilton via Melbourne and the team has planned to take things easy on Sunday.That leaves them with just Monday to have one training session before they play their next game on Tuesday.
However, India are on a roll with four wins on the trot. They are not under much pressure, as they have a good chance of topping Group B and playing fourth-placed team in Group A in the last-eight clash in Melbourne on March 19.
India were lucky to get past a determined West Indies at the WACA on Friday night. As they took a long, circuitous route to Hamilton, they were a bit concerned about the manner in which their top-order crumbled against aggressive West Indies fast bowers who were able to generate quite a bit of bounce on the hard pitch.
It was only the composure of skipper MS Dhoni that helped them to overhaul a not-so-formidable but a tricky target of 183 on a bouncy pitch.
The basic difference in conditions between the two host countries is that the grounds are smaller in New Zealand; there's more swing for the bowlers but no exaggerated bounce for the fast bowlers. The Indian batsmen will have to deal more with the swing than bounce and the bowlers will have to rely on keeping the ball up and making the optimum use of the conditions for swing bowling.
The Indian team no doubt would be contemplating using swing bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Stuart Binny in the two matches in Hamilton and Auckland.
Leaving behind the conditions in Australia which they have got used to over the past three months, they will have to quickly get acclimatized to the conditions in New Zealand.
Dhoni sounded quite cut-up with India's travel plan from Perth to New Zealand.
"We have a fantastic journey from here. We go to Melbourne and after a layover there, we fly to Auckland. From Auckland we drive to Hamilton and reach there at midnight. So, we have a perfect journey that should keep us busy. That will give us less time to think about cricket that's something we have to deal with. The conditions will be slightly different and the grounds will be slightly smaller over there. But again, we have memories of the last time we toured there ­ to some extent that will help us knowing the conditions, the grounds and all of that. Since we have played with the same set of players for the last three years, hopefully they remember what needs to be done (in New Zealand)," Dhoni said of the challenges ahead.
"When we were in New Zealand last, we didn't win a single game there. But I felt the players were learning about what really needs to be done. At times people get too obsessed with winning. It's more important for the bowlers and the batsmen to learn how to deal with the conditions, so that they can consistently win outside (India). I feel after the difficult phase that we all went through, players are taking responsibility. Overall, it has been good so far."
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