Tom Latham is no stranger to Test captaincy, having led the Kiwis in nine games between 2020 and 2022, and the full-time role, thrust upon him after Tim Southee’s resignation from the post earlier this month, feels no different for the 32-year-old.
“It’s a huge privilege for me to be in this position, regardless of whether I am captain or not. I am always trying to perform my role as best I can for the team. It’s not any different being captain. There is a little bit more responsibility. I have captained here in India before and back home as well,” Latham said on the eve of the first Test against India, here at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Co-incidentally, Latham skippered New Zealand the last time it played Test cricket in India (November 2021 at Mumbai) in the absence of then-captain Kane Williamson, who is set to miss the first Test here due to a groin injury.
While Latham acknowledged the team would miss Williamson, New Zealand’s top run-scorer in the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, he also viewed the veteran’s absence as an opportunity for others to step up.
Though the uncapped Mark Chapman travelled with the team as cover for the former skipper, Latham said that Will Young, who has just played 16 Tests since his debut in 2020 and has been shuttled across the top and middle-order, will get a look in on Wednesday.
New Zealand is coming off a 0-2 series defeat in Sri Lanka, where it lost 37 out of 40 wickets to spin-bowling, but Latham chose to see the positives.
“The results weren’t ideal in Sri Lanka. The first Test was a reasonably small margin in terms of the defeat [63 runs], but we did a lot of good stuff on that tour. It is easy to look at the results, but from a batting point of view, you take away the first innings of the second Test [88 all out], and we did well. We changed our approach a little bit in terms of how we played.” the skipper said.
England and India have been at the forefront of a pedal-to-the-metal approach to batting in Tests, epitomised by their recent victories against Pakistan and Bangladesh, respectively.
However, Latham showed no eagerness to commit to any ideology and said he believed in allowing conditions and his players to set the pace.
“In the last 12 months, a lot of teams have taken the approach of being a little more aggressive and putting bowlers under pressure a bit more. It depends on the surface you are up against... We have got different guys that play in completely different ways. It’s about letting guys go and express themselves as much as they can,” he explained.
Persistent rain over the last three to four days in the city has hampered training schedules and deprived captains of the opportunity to assess the pitch.
However, overcast conditions and a pitch that has hardly seen the light of day over the past few days are silver linings for the Kiwi skipper.
“I wasn’t expecting the weather that we have had over the last couple of days since arriving here. Looking at the forecast, it looks similar to what we have got today. The wicket being under covers for a long duration and it’s not hot as well as we expect it to be. That potentially brings the fast bowlers into play. If you look at the previous games played here a month ago, I think the seamers took a lot of wickets,” Latham added.
New Zealand has packed its squad with four fast bowlers. Southee and Matt Henry bring in experience, accompanying William O’Rourke’s youthful exuberance. The 26-year-old pacer Ben Sears was ruled out of the series on Tuesday due to a knee injury and will be replaced by the still uncapped quick Jacob Duffy, who will join the squad on Wednesday.
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