New Delhi: India remain a formidable side particularly at their own backyard, despite getting beaten by New Zealand, said the touring team’s skipper Tom Latham.
India went down in the first two matches of the three-game series in Bengaluru and Pune. It was their first Test series loss in 12 years that ended a run of 18 consecutive series wins.
India’s famed batting line-up struggled against New Zealand’s spinners in both the Tests while the bowlers also didn’t have enough penetration.
But Latham said Rohit Sharma’s boys remained a strong set of players who are capable of bouncing back in the third Test that begins in Mumbai on Thursday.
“India are a quality side, things obviously haven’t gone the way they wanted over the last couple of weeks but it doesn’t make them a bad team overnight,” Latham said on Thursday on the eve of the third Test.
“They’ve got superstars from (Nos) 1 to 15 in their squad and we expect them to be in their best tomorrow and again a new challenge for both teams, a new surface.”
“I’m sure a surface that they know well and a ground that they know well, so I certainly don’t think they have any chinks — they’re a quality team and it’s going to be another great battle,” he added.
Whitewash not primary target
After going 2-0 up, New Zealand have a real chance of inflicting a whitewash on India but Latham said it wasn’t their primary aim going into the final game of the series.
“We’ve obviously done a lot of good stuff over the last couple of weeks but for us, every Test match you go (in with) the focus of trying to win key moments and not necessarily focusing on the result…
“Obviously that’s the by-product of putting things together back-to-back, good sessions back-to-back so yeah, a different pitch, different conditions, it’s obviously a lot hotter out there than what we’ve faced in the last couple of weeks,” he said.
