India Vs New Zealand 1st Test: Rain has dealyed the toss on Day 1 of the India vs New Zealand 1st Test at the M Chinnswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. While there is no official confirmation yet, start of play is also almost sure to be delayed with it continuing to rain at the time of writing this news. Notably, Bengaluru has been placed under 'Orange Alert' by the India Meteorological Depart (IMD) and is likely to receive heavy rainfall for the next two-three days.
With India likely to lose considerable amount of time to rain in this Test match, it would be interesting to see if they adopt a similar approach to the one at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur where they played an ultra-aggresive brand of cricket and registered a win despite losing over two days of cricket to rain and bad light. There is no doubt, however, that the drainage facilities in Bengaluru will be better than the one in Green Park in Kanpur with the Karnataka venue boasting of one of the world's best drainage facilities.
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Moreover, the quality of opposition would also be different. While India faced Bangladesh in Kanpur, they will be up against New Zealand in Bengaluru. With overcast conditions, the Kiwi bowlers will know exactly how to extract seam and swing, if there is anything to assist them.Notably, India need four-five more wins from their remaining eight matches to guarantee themselves a place in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final without depending on any other team's results which is why they have been pushing to play for a result in every match.