Challenges don't come much tougher for the Black Caps than opening their World Test Championship defence on Indian soil.
That's the view of cricketing great Sir Richard Hadlee – he'd know after all having been part of the last New Zealand side to taste victory in India 33 years ago.
"It's a wonderful place to perform," says Hadlee, who picked up 10 wickets for the match when New Zealand beat India by 136 runs in Mumbai in 1988.
"You are playing against one of the great teams. India on home soil are pretty near unbeatable."
Hadlee – a noted numbers man – remembers both his tours to India well. He picked up the second best figures of his first-class career (9-55) in a warm-up match at Rajkot before the Mumbai victory.
"Conditions in 1976 (2-0 loss) were pretty tough with the accommodation, the food, sickness and those sorts of things we had. Even in 1988 (2-1 loss) we had a lot of health issues. But things have changed dramatically in India, it's a fantastic country to tour now and of course the players spend a lot of time over there anyway with the IPL. They're well-conditioned to Indian conditions."
Richard Hadlee appeals for a wicket during New Zealand's last victory on Indian soil in 1988. Photo / Getty
Adding to the challenge is New Zealand's lack of red ball preparation before the first of two tests which starts tomorrow afternoon in Kanpur.
The Black Caps haven't played a test since their Championship final triumph against the same opponent in June.
BJ Watling, Trent Boult and Colin de Grandhomme are among those who won't feature this tour.
"It's a new team coming together basically now that all the Twenty20 stuff [is over] so they need to switch on quickly. It could be a difficult assignment," Hadlee said.
"Our bowlers will have to do a lot of sweating, bowl a lot of overs. The batters are going to have to be very patient; the Indians will wear them down. They'll set attacking fields and put a lot of pressure on so it's an enormous challenge for our players."
A test series victory would be the first for the Black Caps in India in 11 attempts. For Hadlee it would reassure his view this current team are our greatest.
"They are already, probably our greatest team when you look at what they've achieved particularly over the last few years at home winning series.
"Our biggest nemesis of course is Australia, but India, to beat them in their own conditions is rare. We've only done it twice. So the stats are against us but then stats can be proven to be wrong so I'm sure the players will be motivated to turn it around."
