By IANS,
Hamilton : India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said Tuesday that he is not worried about the tourists’ bad record in Test matches in New Zealand.
After creating history by winning the one-day series, India will take on New Zealand in a three-match Test series starting here Wednesday.
But India’s track record in Tests on New Zealand soil has been dismal. Out of 18 matches, India have won only four with a winning percentage of 22.22 percent.
But Dhoni is not worried about these figures.
“We hadn’t won a one-day series (in New Zealand) either. I am not bothered about whether we have won here or not,” Dhoni said on the eve of the match.
“I am just bothered about the things we need to do over here as a team. We are not thinking about what happened in the past. I am not great when it comes to stats, so that really helps.”
But for Dhoni it will be tough to make a choice for the third seamer. Munaf Patel has looked rusty while Lakshmipathy Balaji is making a comeback from injury.
But the India captain made it clear that Munaf’s poor outings would not be held against him.
“You know he is a much better bowler than what he did in the one-dayers,” Dhoni said.
“Often he bowled as one-change seamer, and wickets were quite placid. We had big scores, and most of the times New Zealand got off to a good start, which meant basically the batsmen targeted the third seamer. It’s always tough to judge on the basis of one-day especially,” said Dhoni.
“We will see who the best bowler is and who is bowling better right now, and accordingly we will pick the third seamer,” he said.