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Wadekar’s advice to Indians

Special Correspondent

MUMBAI: Former skipper Ajit Wadekar said “making the necessary adjustments” was vital to India’s chances during the tour of New Zealand. The team is scheduled to leave for New Zealand after attending the BCCI awards function here on Wednesday.

Wadekar began India’s first tour of New Zealand 42 years ago with a bang, cutting and carving 80 and 71 in the first Test at Dunedin. He finished as the highest run-getter in that series with 328 runs, as India won the series 3-1.

Since 1967-68, India has failed to come to grips with the conditions there and has registered just one win — in the 1975-76 series when Sunil Gavaskar and Surinder Amarnath scored centuries and leg-spinner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (six for 94 and two for 85) and off-spinner Erapalli Prasanna (three for 64 and eight for 76) took 19 wickets between them.

About the upcoming tour, Wadekar said Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and the bowlers should take maximum advantage of the seaming conditions.

Will assist spinners

“The wickets have changed there, but the spinners will get assistance. They have only one quality spinner in Daniel Vettori. My advice to the Indian batsmen would be to play the ball late, and never go after the ball and hit on the rise.

“I am sure this team is capable of doing well because it has spent a lot of time together. It’s a balanced side. It’s only a question of how quickly the players get adjusted to the conditions in New Zealand.”

Wadekar agreed to an extent while responding to Sachin Tendulkar’s point that it was difficult to keep the eyes open for a long time at Wellington because of the blustery weather and a few other players’ observation that it would be difficult to keep the bat steady sometimes. “The bats are heavier these days and that should neutralise the wind factor,” said Wadekar.

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