Strategy versus brute force is the tale of New Zealand versus India

@Rational animal- agree 100%

I don't know how many of you have been in a Perth heatwave but NZ were cooked for the first three days in Perth and never recovered. How do you prepare for that? If you haven't fielded for 6 hours in close to 40C with no breeze you won't understand. It stuffs you completely and the major factor becomes surviving. That's why you need a split series ala "Bledisloe Cup". Like to see Australia in Dunedin midsummer with tops of 10C on a green deck. Why do home teams win?

India have won , I think, about one test in NZ in the last 20 years. Woeful. New Zealand have not beaten Australia in Australia since 2011. Australia have not done much away from home since their Champion Team circa 95-2005 all retired. Its becoming non competitive in Test Series when you play away from home. I'm actually losing interest as a result. I actually enjoyed the World Cup 50 over the best (even though NZ were robbed in the final) out of all the Cricket Ive seen in the last few years. At least all Teams had a good amount of warm up games, and the conditions were a more even playing field.

I don't think it has a lot to do with being clever Tsat, more about being prepared. Again though, you put a lot of blame on coaches and the captain but what about the players? These guys are all professionals and in India's case, would be making millions every year. They too have to accept responsibility for their part in the planning process, which does not stop when they get fit and are in form with bat or ball. They first of all must have input into the planning process for the team as well as themselves, then they have to execute those plans and by that I mean if plan A isn't working, go to plan B, C, etc. That applies to both bat & ball, not just to bowling. Kohli made the really disappointing comment the toss was crucial to win, but his team had the best of the batting conditions on days 3 & 4 and couldn't make 200. The batsman needed to give up plan A, ie belting the ball to all parts and focus on plan B, occupying the crease, scoring when a risk free option presented but trying to let deliveries go so they could build a challenging total. I'm sure India will bounce back, the team as a whole is far too talented not to do so. They need to get their heads into Test mode, sort out their plans and tell Kohli to stop being impatient as a fielding skipper, as you rightly point out.

@Tsat except Targa just gave you a concrete example where NZ were not smart. Going from NZ at a time of year where pitches are at their slowest and lowest, with zero preparation and less than a week between tests to play a day-nighter in Perth against that Australian attack without their best bowler who averages 12.5 in day-night tests was only going to end one way. Couple that with more injuries, illness and the lack of foresight in giving Williamson a rest after the world cup but before this series meant it was only going to end one way. Give an Australian team an opening, especially against a NZ cricket team, and they keep hammering you until you're down and then won't let you back up. India meanwhile comes and play t20s on pitches not too dissimilar to everywhere then a series of ODi's where the pitches start to become more native-like in character while also having their A side stacked with their test cricketers playing in NZ for that entire time as well. This Indian team was the most acclimatised team to NZ conditions that have ever been before a test series. If they had vastly superior skills they wouldn't have lost in this fashion. Their batsmen failed due to a lack of skill, much as those same batsmen failed against NZ twice in England during the world cup for the same reason, much as they failed in the ODI series in NZ during the one game that was played on a NZ surface. Their bowlers clearly failed to execute their plans and don't swing the ball (i.e a skill) as much as the opposition. As for onfield tactics NZ managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory 3 games in a row during the t20 series. This was no doubt partly due to the lack fo confidence in the team after the Aussie tour, but there was a distinct lack of intelligence at the back end of games. NZ should have won the T20 series 3-2, but panic and sloppiness and poor plans let them down. Pant's run out aside, India haven't really played stupidly. If Australia were smart and much superior to NZ in skills then they'd have a record better than NZ overseas against other opponents, but NZ has gone to places like Sri Lanka and Abu Dhabi, straight after Australia and done better. This wouldn't be the case if Australia were far suprior. Australia is clearly much better on hard fast tracks with little movement, their bowling attack is the best in the world in these conditions and their batsmen feel much more comfortable. But NZ's record in the sub-continent lately is better than OZ and their records in England are similar. OZ are far better in conditions that are similar to their own and worse in some conditions than NZ. It's just that they'll never play each other in these conditions in a test match. A resurgent Australia with the emergence of Marnus is probably the best team in the world, followed by India which are probably the most well-rounded team at the moment. But this idea that NZ are where they are to constantly outsmarting the opposition is a backhanded compliment that is dismissive of the NZ players abilities and more importantly not supported by the facts.

Targa - that is not NZ not being smart - rather the power of the big 3. India basically get to choose where they play and when - notice not a single ODI or T20 out of 8 was in the South island of NZ? Only one game out of 10 is in the South Island. NZ gets what it gets - they don't get the choice of a three week warm up series. Some of that came down to scheduling which must be a nightmare for international cricket given the various vested interests, but not all things are equal. To be fair Australia just plain old outplayed NZ as well - as we have seen, it is hard to win away from home for any side.

Yes India probably will lose 2-0 to New Zealand and 3-1 to Australia, but they can make up that against England in the home Series early next year. Probably they will play Australia the Final.

Oz love playing at home, NZ are no different. Solid win after the Oz disaster, some new talent emerging and the team is looking more balanced. India is still the number one team in the World and they will bounce back, they just to good , not too. Should be a cracker of a second test. Congratulations on 100 test wins from 441 .

I don't think the NZ team is that smart. If they were they would have prepared properly to play in Australia rather than just flying over there and not playing warm-up matches. I'm still annoyed about that as that should've been a great competitive series. India has had amazing preparation for this series in NZ - played T20s and ODIs first and had India A out here as well with several of the test team playing in that for additional warm ups and prep.

I think India is safe and will also pick up points against England at home next year.

" Why do the captain and the bowlers panic the minute lower-order batsmen start to put together a partnership? These are not failings of the players but failings of the management to prepare them with a clear pre-game strategy to play under such situations." Tsat, I think you need to be a little careful blaming "management" or the BCCI for what is, essentially, the failing of the playing group and the captain. The issues with the batting have been simple; guys going at deliveries with hard hands in the first innings, then guys not having a means to score runs in the second when the screws were applied. The bowling is even more simple; the bowlers had a plan A, but either did not have a plan B or C, or if they did, they didn't execute. In the sorts of conditions India face in New Zealand, they badly need Pujara and Kohli to fire, which they clearly haven't done. The team can build a solid total around one or both of these guys but when they go cheaply, the batting team struggles. The bowling should not be dominated by Ishant Sharma, yet he is far and away India's best bowler so if that's the case, why aren't Bumrah & Shami copying his methods? As for Kohli the skipper, he seems to lose patience if his team doesn't pick up a wicket every 6 or 8 overs and his constant field changes and insistence of 7-3 & 8-2 fields must be disheartening to his quicks. One final point. You made the comment "On the other side, if you look at New Zealand, they are often the first team to have worked out a way to get the better of top players." How did they go in Australia in the recent Tests? Sure they got Smith out relatively cheaply, but that was about it.

It's 120 points per test series, so a chance India might miss the final if they have a disastrous run. I think India & Australia are in the box seat, not sure who's third at the moment, but NZ need to desperately win a lot of tests if they're to overhaul India or Australia.

I would not call this brute force. Brute force was what Australia team was in 2005-2006. Our team is acting more like rich dad's spoilt son where BCCI is being the rich dad. Thoroughly disappointed with the performance. It would be no less than a miracle to take this game to fifth day now. I believe our so called star cricketers are too focused on advertisements than cricket. Call it over reaction after one bad test, but I do not think our performance in last tour of South Africa, England or Australia, was really reflecting upward graph of our performance outside home. It was rather a flash of a brilliance combined with some individual performances. The most frustrating part is, where we get an opener, who made centuries against west Indies team, no disrespect meant, and all of a sudden we start to see a prodigy in him. Now he is getting exposed left right centre by Boult and co. I do not really expect much from yes man cheerleader Mr. Shastri, but I thought we had individual batting coach for that? If anybody knows those points table calculation, please be kind to tell me, what would be the worst case scenario if we lose this series 2 nill and get defeated in Australia by 3 or 4 nill? Will we be in top 2 to play the test championship final?