India vs New Zealand: ‘Will have to take it per session’ - R Ashwin explains Team India’s Day 4 strategy

IND vs NZ: After dismissing India for 165, New Zealand posted 348 runs to take a huge first innings lead. The Kiwi bowlers then removed India’s four top-order batsmen as the visitors trail by 39 runs at the end of day’s play.

Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin believes India will have to set small targets if they are to eke out a positive result after New Zealand dominated the third day of first Test at Basin Reserve in Wellington on Sunday. After dismissing India for 165, New Zealand posted 348 runs to take a huge first innings lead. The Kiwi bowlers then removed India’s four top-order batsmen as the visitors trailed by 39 runs at the end of day’s play.

Wellington: India's Ravichandran Ashwin. (AP)

Ashwin stated the first session on fourth day will be crucial for India and they will look to bat it out against the quality Kiwi bowling attack. He also explained how they will try to set short-term goals for themselves in order to get back at the hosts.

“They are bowling lovely lengths and incisive in second innings even when the pitch is not the same as first day,” Ashwin told reporters in Wellington. “They have made it hard for us and like the Test has just begun for us. They have bowled 65 overs and we have to see how they wake up and we have to bat another session in morning.”

“I know to keep it simple and say this is defendable and this is not, (it) is pretty much how you would want me to present it, but it’s too much -- like six sessions to go and we are not even at a stage where we can say what is a good score to defend.”

“But that is very far away and we have to take every ball at a time to be honest, because there is still enough in the surface. We are not yet in a stage from our perspective where we can look at it very far.

“We will have to take it per session, per hour, however small a target we can set, the better it is for us. They (Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari) batted very well. It is important to stay in the moment and continue the way they are batting. They are set, they know what the wicket is like,” he added.

Ashwin also heaped praise on opener Mayank Agarwal, who resisted the fiery bowling attack unlike any other Indian batsman on the day. He scored a fine half-century (58 off 99 balls), India’s only fifty-scorer of the match thus far.

“It’s a fine line and you don’t really know when to attack and defend and can get really caught in between both situations. Mayank has been in rich vein of form and it matters. He has had the continuity as he had played India A games and ODIs. The bat flow is very beautiful on the ball and all these things do make a difference,” he said.

((With PTI Inputs))