Rahul Dravid may have mined something of a personal vein of run-scoring gold on his last tour to New Zealand in 1998/99, but he believes he is but one cog in the Indian scoring machine that will be vital to subduing the home team in the first
Lynn McConnell10-Dec-2002Rahul Dravid may have mined something of a personal vein of run-scoring gold on his last tour to New Zealand in 1998/99, but he believes he is but one cog in the Indian scoring machine that will be vital to subduing the home team in the first National Bank Test starting in Wellington on Thursday.It is a measure of India’s progress toward a more consistent winning formula overseas that Sachin Tendulkar and Dravid sit at Nos 2 and 3 on the calendar year scoring table.In 14 Tests, Tendulkar has scored 1292 runs at 61.52 while Dravid has made 1226 at 64.52 with five centuries.Just below them are V V S Laxman who has 957 runs at 45.61, Sourav Ganguly 916 at 49.51 and Virender Sehwag 507 at 49.75.It is a phenomenal example of the job that lies ahead of the New Zealand bowling attack as they attempt to contain such latent batting power.Not surprisingly, Dravid deflects attention from his past deeds in New Zealand to highlight the strength of batting there is in the Indian team now.”We have a good batting line-up and everyone has been in good touch. So I don’t really see myself as the only player, the key player. There’s a lot of other guys in the side who have been in good touch, in good form. If you want to do well in a Test series, the other guys have to contribute. It’s never really a one-man show,” he said.However, he did acknowledge that when a batsman was in the midst of a quality spell of scoring such as he has enjoyed this year, there was something special about it.”It’s a nice feeling. As an international batsman, and as a young kid growing up, you always want to succeed. I think it is a great honour to be playing at this level and against people at this level so to do well is a great feeling. England was very satisfying,” he said.The one advantage that New Zealand have is knowledge of their home conditions, and they are conditions which are even more suitable to the fast-medium attack that has sustained New Zealand throughout their history.An extraordinarily wet early summer has given the country, and its cricket pitches, a vivid hue of green that suggests mischief aplenty for batsmen not used to the ball moving around.However, India, with more players having been exposed to county cricket in recent years, and having toured England earlier this year, know what to expect.”Conditions are similar to England in a lot of ways. It might seam a bit more initially but we’ve just had the experience of playing in England a few months ago, the guys have done well there and they have the confidence of having done well there,” Dravid said.While acknowledging the success he had previously in New Zealand, he was mindful of the different requirements forced by the conditions.”You have to look at your shot selection, the kind of shots you can play, the kind you can’t play. I think it’s a question of maybe tightening up your technique a little bit. It’s basically just a state of mind,” he said.One of the factors in the two-Test series will be the influence, or otherwise, of New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond. The Indians have only seen him during his four overs in the Super Max International which opened the tour.But the tom-toms around the world cricket community soon start beating when a new influence emerges and the Indians will be mindful of the threat he represents. Dravid diplomatically described the way he and his fellow batsmen will be looking to deflate the Kiwi fast man as “a good challenge.”Given the runs they have posted this year, it is little surprise that he said they were looking forward to that challenge.”It won’t be easy, New Zealand are a very good side. And in their conditions they seem to play very well. They’ve got some good quality cricketers. So I think it is going to be a good contest between two evenly-matched sides,” he said.”The only bowler I have faced in this line-up is Daniel Vettori. In these conditions all of them will be good bowlers. They will be a handful but we back ourselves and our bowlers in these conditions.”Dravid made the pertinent point that while India have sometimes struggled to take the required 20 wickets for victory on flat tracks, they have been able to back their bowlers to do the job on seaming wickets, and their Test victory over England at Headingley was an example of that.It then came down to batting well, and if they could do that then they were in with a good chance of taking the series.”It’s been a good year so far, so it will be nice to finish off well, and it would be very nice if we could win the series more importantly. If we can do that that will be fantastic.”Wellington also provides another unique feature to Test cricket – its wind.This isn’t a Fremantle Doctor which takes the edge off the heat that can wilt the best in Perth.This is a nasty piece of work, a chilling wind, a blustery beast, that demands the very most of the souls doomed to bowl into it. Its gusty nature can knock bowlers off their rhythm so easily, and the result when batsmen make use of the tailwind adds greater velocity to the ball on its way to, or over, the boundary.”The wind will be a different challenge for the bowlers, a new experience for them. That’s one of the challenges of playing abroad. That’s one of the joys of playing international cricket, playing on different grounds and different venues and in different conditions. And if you do well you get a great amount of satisfaction,” he said, fresh from nearly three hours practice in the breeze.There is another factor in this contest.Coach John Wright is back in his home country for the first time since taking on the Indian coaching position, and back at a ground where he achieved some of the more notable moments of his career, none more than his unbeaten century to help beat Australia in 1990. There is a natural desire for his new side to want to do well for him, but there is still the greater need of satisfying the hopes of the millions of supporters at home.Dravid said the side had won five Tests away from home in the last 18 months after having a poor record earlier. This mini-series represented another chance to hammer that point home.