India set to kick-start their longest home season of Test Cricket on the auspicious occasion in its history in Kanpur as they eager to set the tone for rest of the season with the 500 th landmark test in its entirety which is all set to make a start on Thursday. The home side and the visitors who are well known to tag underdogs every time are both in a process to challenge themselves to reach the next level.
While India established themselves as an unbeatable team at home after the Series loss to England in 2012, since then India hadn't lost a test at home. It's largely due to the way spinners dominated proceedings and the visiting teams couldn't match the quality with their less prolific spinners. But large amount of concerns raised over the quality of pitches being prepared, where hardly any test match reaching the final day for the result.
But for now India are a team with re energising under Captain Kohli and Coach Kumble, who are looking far ahead in terms of specific circumstances on offer. Were they won all the test series under Virat after appointing full time captain in longer format and the recently concluded tour to West Indies has been fruitful by clinging the four test match series by 2-0. In this process of progress they found some healthy completion within the squad at the top order with Rahul making every opportunity count and Ashwin's promotion to No.5 has also paid off in big by providing enough freedom to saha down the order.
On the other hand Kiwis grown as an invariably hard team to beat in shorter format, but with the nature they posses from years it's hard them to consider lightly in the longer format as well irrespective of where they rank in the table. The visitors are now without Baz but the seeds are strongly implanted in every Player and Kane Williamson is on the footsteps of Baz legacy. While their recent tour to South Africa hasn't been a good outing as they lost the series by 1-0 to the home side, although there are some mature Innings played by Nichols in the middle order in testing conditions.
Meanwhile here in India it's going to be more about spin and the visitors spinners has shown good intent during WT20 where Ishi Sodhi and Santner tumbled India in Nagpur and are also been the leading wicket takers during the tournament. Now it is taking another step forward for this young spinners to establish themselves at the highest test and it all depends on how long they can consistently test the batsmen on surfaces there is always some help.
On the other side Indian spinners are well experienced and established one's and all fortunes turning their way in recent past as with their form irrespective of format. While for Ashwin it's the same series back in 2012 where he made impact in longest format, since then the offspinner hadn't looked back. So it will be another test for Kiwis batsmen against the spin trio who are coming into the series with some form and the visitors heavily dependent on experience of Taylor and Williamson in these conditions, so their chances of giving a fight to strong Indian attack lot depends on how Guptill, Latham and Nicolas support the senior batsmen.
Although lot depends on the conditions on offer as the pitch being prepared as typical Indian track, which will assist spinners more as the game progress and reverse swing likely to play a huge role in later days of test match.
So with the known conditions both teams tempted to go with their spin trio alongside one or two pacers depending on their batting depth, coming to the batting order Dhawan likely to miss the first test due to his moderate form in recent past and Pujara likely to be back at No.3 with his impressive double century in recently concluded domestic final.
At the end there is lot look forward to India's long home season and how Kiwis fight to keep up with the standards of longer format. While it is interesting to see whether Crowd turn to the stadium not just due to it's landmark in Indian cricket, but with the way test Cricket is being perceived in the recent past in India.
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