New Zealand’s left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner will be trying his best to perform better during the three-match ODI series and T20I series against India starting October 22.
The last time Santner came to India, he picked up 3 wickets from 5 ODIs. He was able to pul down the run-rate but could not pick up wickets when it was required. Now, he is raring to use his experience from the last series and try to make the much-needed changes for it. Santner has been selected in the ODI and T20I squad. Since the last time he came to India, he has picked up 44 wickets from 39 ODIs including a fifer.
During a recent interview with PTI, Santner said, “It is tough (to bowl against India), they are a very good player of spin. They have grown up playing spin. I just try to keep it pretty simple. Bowl the ball reasonably quick on the surface and make the batsmen commit a mistake. If you get a few dots and build pressure that way, you can hopefully get a few wickets. That what I’ll be trying to do.”
When Santner was asked about his plans for the Indian skipper Virat Kohli, he replied, “Not easy. He’s a very good player, and so is a lot of their team. They’re in good form, the way they played against Australia was very good. The last time we came here, we did ok. Hopefully, we can do one better this time and take the series.”
The southpaw recons that his previous experience will surely help him, he said, “We haven’t been here for a while. But for me, it’s about taking those past experiences of the way I bowled over here, and the way to bowl spin over here. So I’ll be looking to do that.”
Mitchel has also taken some crucial advice from New Zealand’s legendary off-spinner Daniel Vettori, he said, “I have (learnt from him). He’s a very good left-arm spinner. I am not trying to bowl miracle balls every ball.It’s about tying up a batsman and waiting for them to make a mistake.”
He further added, “Especially on wickets that offer a little bit, I watched a lot of Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja. They just try to bowl very consistent and good areas and wait for the batsmen to hit a big shot and get out or run past one. I have taken a little bit of footage from there.”
In the World T20 2016, when India lost their opening game, to New Zealand, Santner bowled well alongside Ish Sodhi and kneeled India’s batting line-up at Nagpur. Recalling the same he said, “I think on that day, we did keep it pretty simple, tried to bowl relatively quick. Didn’t try and give them too much and let them make a mistake. We can learn from that experience and take it into this series. We have to adapt, if it’s not going to sin as much then you might have to change the way we bowl.”
