NZ Ready to Challenge 'Accomplished' Ashwin and Jadeja in Strong Fight, Rachin Ravindra

New Zealand, who are touring the subcontinent as a part of their tour, are well-prepared for the do-or-die battle against World Test Championship (WTC) table toppers India after playing two Tests against Sri Lanka, whose one-off Test against them was rain-washed at Greater Noida last month.

Ahead of the three-match Test series against India, Rachin Ravindra feels that what lies ahead – in the company of accomplished spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja – could be a very daunting challenge for the visitors. Still, the batter was confident of putting up a strong fight.

New Zealand, who are touring the subcontinent as a part of their tour, are well-prepared for the do-or-die battle against World Test Championship (WTC) table toppers India after playing two Tests against Sri Lanka, whose one-off Test against them was rain-washed at Greater Noida last month.
The Rohit Sharma-led side defeated Bangladesh in both the Tests in the two-Test home series.

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For India, there is Ashwin, who is the leading wicket-taker for the ongoing WTC cycle, 53 scalps from 10 Tests, while Jadeja claimed 35 wickets which is the third in the list for India, next only to pacer Jasprit Bumrah's 42 dismissals.

Obviously, we know how good India are in their own conditions, the quality of their bowlers, the quality of their batters. They've grown up in these conditions and it shows how hard it is for a team to come and win here.

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So it's hard. They have some pretty consistent bowlers who bowl at a spot for a long time. I mean, you look at the two spinners who bat pretty regularly – Ashwin and Jaddu (Jadeja), they are two very experienced bowlers. And they can bat too, which makes it a little tough. They are a very good team," Rachin said in the press conference on Monday.

"We'll take our learnings. We've been here a lot recently, we've played a lot of Test matches in India. The group has grown together quite well and we've all had that experience, so hopefully we can put together a strong fight," he added.

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NZ had suffered a 0-2 whitewash against Sri Lanka before arriving in India and Rachin lamented missing the chance to play in Greater Noida to acclimatise better to the Indian conditions with no practice game ahead of the series opener in Bengaluru from Wednesday.

"Yeah, definitely, obviously not being able to play in Noida (against Afghanistan) was a bit disappointing, it would have been a good little build-up.". I reckon it's not often that a New Zealand side has the chance to have six tests back to back in the subcontinent, and that is certainly an amazing opportunity to not just to record wins, it's more for experience and trying to get better as a player and better as a group, he says from a press conference.

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"Because traditionally, you know, it's always tough to play in this part of the world, but I think it's great preparation. Obviously, Sri Lanka and India are different places, different surfaces, but similar in terms of the amount of spin you might play.".

They are a quality side, of course, especially in their own conditions, and they've proved that, they're sitting pretty high in the World Test Championship ranking, so for us it was a great Test, we took a lot out of it and learnt a lot. So it's mostly about seeing how we can play our game and how we can bring that here to India," he added.

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The 24-year-old sounded confident about his team's strength, which would come from the likes of Kane Williamson, Tom Latham, Devon Conway, and Daryl Mitchell, who have done well at different stages in Indian conditions.

""I think it's just being true to yourself as a player, I think we've got some quality players in our set-up. We've got Kane (Williamson), we've got Tom Latham, you've got Dev (Devon Conway), you've got Daryl (Mitchell). You've got guys who approach the game differently, and I think it's for us doing what we do well in our own capacity, you know," he said.

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'Dev's very good at reverse sweeping, sweeping, you know, Daryl's the same. That doesn't necessarily mean, you know, someone else has to do the exact same thing. So it's for us to find our own method and being comfortable with that and trusting that, I guess. And I think that's probably going to be important over the next few Tests," Rachin added.

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