New Zealand, after being rattled by the rival spinners on the opening day of the Pune Test on Thursday, have decided to take the easiest way to try and hit back at the hosts — do what the Indian spinners did.

Washington Sundar (7/59) and Ravichandran Ashwin (3/64) combined to trigger a collapse in New Zealand’s first innings. The visitors, who were 197/3 at one stage, were shot out for 259. Devon Conway made 76, while Rachin Ravindra scored 65.

New Zealand assistant coach Luke Ronchi revealed that they would try to replicate the approach of the Indian spinners to find success against the home team batters.

“If you notice, for the first couple of sessions, the Indians — the spinners — were bowling quite quick, and towards the back end they started to slow their pace,” Ronchi said at the media conference after the end of the day’s play.

“That sort of made possible a bit more turn and bounce and variable sort of reactions off the surface... So that’s something we can use in our bowling innings, knowing that changes of pace are quite significant,” Ronchi added.

Ronchi said that while the pitch at the MCA Stadium in Pune did not offer as much turn as they expected, it would still test the batters with its tricky nature as the game progressed.

“Both teams could quite easily say that they thought this wicket would turn more than it has so far. But again, it’s just about tomorrow for us... build pressure, bowl in some good areas and get that variable bounce,” he said.

“It’s going to be a surface where, maybe, as the game goes on you’re not going to
feel like you’re actually in,” Ronchi added.