India in dominating position in 2nd Test vs New Zealand: Sachin Tendulkar

India and New Zealand are battling it out at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, for the two-match Test series. Both cricket teams managed to draw the Kanpur Test after a hard-fought encounter. In the second Test, India captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat.

However, after a decent start, they found themselves on the backfoot as New Zealand spinner Ajaz Patel dismissed Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Shreyas Iyer.

Meanwhile, Mayank Agarwal kept his own personal scoreboard ticking and struck a brilliant ton to bring India out of a precarious position. India ended the opening day on 221/4.

Early on the second day, it was Ajaz Patel again who troubled the Indian batter and quickly dismissed Wriddhiman Saha and Ravichandran Ashwin. By doing this, he became the first New Zealand spinner to register a five-wicket haul in the 1st innings of a Test in India.

Commenting on the Test match and how the spinners have/will fare, India great Sachin Tendulkar said: “Overall how the pitch has played, our spinners will be able to bowl much better compared to their slow bowlers. We are in a dominating position right now.”

Tendulkar also had high praise for Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer and Mayank Agarwal.

He said that Shubman Gill has the required technique and temperament to bat at any position in the Indian Test team.

“When it comes to technique, different surfaces will test you differently. I think Shubman has an advantage as he played a very crucial inning (91) in Brisbane where we won the Test match,” Tendulkar told PTI in an interaction.

“He has had the experience of playing on hard and bouncy tracks and I felt that he looked pretty comfortable. So, I don’t think there is any technical issue as such,” he said.

However, Tendulkar wants the young Punjab man to convert his starts and is confident that he will do that consistently sooner than later.

“Shubman has started well and shown a lot of promise. The way he builds his innings, he has been good so far. Just that he needs to go further and convert those 40s into big scores,” the maestro said.

“Once you get into that squad, it is about how hungry you are for bigger scores which I am sure he is. He needs to just convert those starts and not lose concentration. Both in Kanpur and Mumbai, he got a good deliveries. He is on a learning curve and will definitely take lessons.”

For Shreyas Iyer, Tendulkar said: “I thought Shreyas was fantastic and made most of the opportunities he got, at one stage the scoreboard wasn’t looking that good and he came up with a gem of an innings and resulted in India almost winning the Test. Both his knocks were important.”

The former India cricket captain said that Mayank Agarwal‘s hundred impressed him as he feels that this track has similarities with the one where India beat Australia in two and half days after the first day’s play was washed out.