Captain Virat Kohli said India would not adopt a pre-determined approach in the second Test starting at the Eden Gardens on Friday.
Here are the excerpts from his interaction with the media on the eve of the match:
Injury concerns: Jayant (Yadav) is not there as cover…We have three quicks already. We thought of adding another off-spinner because they have five left-handers in their line-up. This will help at some stage when we plan to play three spinners. Maybe two off-spinners could play together.
On Jadeja: What I think is that he used to think too much about Test cricket being too difficult and him having to play differently. He has a different way of playing cricket which we feel he shouldn’t change. Obviously, he will gain experience.
New Zealand batsmen’s approach: Our focus will be to execute our skills as well as we can. In the first game they had some good partnerships… We’re not pre-planning for any approach. We feel that we are skilled enough to tackle any plans they come up with.
On regaining the No. 1 rank: I don’t get motivated by records… my goal is to play cricket at a certain level and maintain it.
Own form: I don’t really think about these things. You prepare well, but the result is not in your hands.
On Ashwin and the pitch: Ashwin is absolutely fine. The pitch looks good…the pitch is what we see in Kolkata more often than not. It’s generally a very good batting wicket. We are expecting the same.
New Zealand batsman Tom Latham said:
Injury or health issues: Kane Williamson is a little bit ‘crook’ today. Hopefully he’ll be fine to go tomorrow. Nothing too major, he is just resting up and getting right for tomorrow.
Team’s approach: Nothing really changes too much [from Kanpur]… we weren’t too far away in the first Test. We just need to do things a little bit longer.
The Ashwin-Jadeja combination: They are world-class bowlers and they bowl a lot of overs in these conditions. If we can keep making those good decisions for longer, hopefully we can put up a good score, or if we are chasing in the last innings we can chase [the total] down.”
