Nobody would have expected India being thrashed in the three-match ODI series after dominating the T20I series. Former New Zealand skipper Glenn Turner was also astonished by India’s defeat in the 50 over format.
New Zealand was clean swept by the Men in Blue in the five-match T20I series. However, the Kiwi’s made a strong comeback to whitewash India in the three-match ODI series.
Glenn Turner expected a lot from the New Zealand-India bilateral series:
In the ODI series, India had a poor outing in the field. Virat Kohli and Co. failed to defend the target of 300 in first game and nearly 300 (296) in the final game.
The day-night contest saw loopholes in the bowling department of India. Turner also goes in the same vein, saying, India needs to perform better with the ball.
“At the moment, New Zealand has their nose ahead but I have been rather surprised, that has been the case. India has shown in three-match series they have several ‘ifs’ and I am surprised that they have not performed better than they have,” he said.
Technically, I felt bowling from both sides have been way below than what I had expected at international levels in both formats.”
“I would expect the Indian bowling to be better”: Turner
Turner speaks about the two spearhead pacers of India- Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah. Both the pacers were a bit out of form in one-dayers. As Jasprit Bumrah went wicketless in the all the three matches while Shami was slightly off-colour.
Turner hopes that Shami and Bumrah bring their best in the Test series which will start from 21st February.
“Shami has shown he is a talent and has great stamina. It’s almost in my mind, once Test matches start, the theory of how you should bowl under certain circumstances in limited-overs cricket tends to be sidelined. That being the case, I would expect the Indian bowling to be better than what we have seen,” Turner pointed out.
“Bumrah has got natural talent despite being unorthodox in his bowling action. He tends to come off the pitch quicker than you would expect and has accuracy. He has had a good warm-up bowling 10 overs in ODIs but then limited-overs doesn’t help in building stamina for bowling 25 overs a day.”
Meanwhile, the first Tests of the two-match series will be played at Seddon Park and Wellington. Currently, the two teams are playing the 3-day Practice match.