India vs New Zealand: ‘Not out and out swing bowlers’ - Sanjay Manjrekar explains big difference between India and New Zealand pacers

The Indian seamers, barring Ishant Sharma, looked out of sorts in the first India vs New Zealand Test match in Wellington. They were outbowled by the New Zealand pacers in both the innings. This was one of the defining factors India’s loss and the inability of the Indian pacers to extract any assistance from the surface has become a major talking point.

Former India batsman Sanjay Manrekar believes that the Indian pacers are not swing bowlers and hence, they struggled to find the right lines and lengths in Wellington as compared to the Kiwi bowlers who knew how the make the most use of the conditions on offer.

Speaking at the end of the match, Team India captain Virat Kohli too spoke about the bowlers. The crop did not hit the right areas and were generally back of a length which did not help their cause. However, the captain sounded confident that they will learn from the performance and march on for the second Test.

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“I think as a bowling group they have taken a lot of pride in being competitive and bowling good channels for long enough,” Kohli said. “I think overall we really did put in a good effort but we still could be a lot more disciplined. That’s something the bowlers have recognised themselves. That’s not something that needs to be pointed out to them anymore. They were not as happy with their bowling performance as they would have been otherwise. That can happen in this game at the international level, but it’s about how we learn from it and how we bounce back.”

The conditions in Christchurch might not be too different and it will be interesting to see the method adopted by the Indian fast-bowlers. The surface will have assistance for the seamers and the bowlers will be expected to come with with a better performance.