"New Zealand will look to replicate Indian spinners' approach on Day 2": Luke Ronchi

Luke Ronchi (Pic: X/@ICC)

New Zealand will look to replicate the approach of the Indian spinner on day two of the second Test match in Pune, said the Kiwis' assistant coach Luke Ronchi.

Washington Sundar snapped seven wickets for 59 runs, followed by Ravichandran Ashwin claimed three wickets for 64 runs. Following this, New Zealand's innings was wrapped up at 259 runs in their first innings.

Team India lost one wicket to their skipper Rohit Sharma and are at 16 runs at the stumps of the first day.

"If you notice, for the first couple of sessions, the Indians were bowling quite quick, the spinners, and towards the back end they started to slow their pace", Luke Ronchi told the media after the day's play.

Ashwin and Washington worked out the plan of varying pace to trigger a New Zealand collapse from being 197/3.

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While Ashwin took three wickets at the top, Washington claimed the remaining seven to record his best figures in Test cricket.

"That sort of made for variable, a bit more turn and bounce and variable sort of reactions off the surface, so that's something we can use in our bowling innings, knowing that changes of pace are quite significant", Luke Ronchi added.

Following Sundar's seven-wicket haul, Luke Ronchi heaped praise on him for being consistent with his lengths on the first day of the second Test match.

"It was just this consistency of being able to hit a good area for long periods of time. There were some balls that went really wide in the crease."

"He got some good drift and the ball that got Rachin (out) was from really wide and straight and hit (the off stump). That's a really nice ball to bowl for anyone", he said.

Luke Ronchi further stated that the MCA stadium's pitch is not offering the spin as much as it was expected, so for New Zealand it would be important to keep it tight against the Indian batsmen.

"Both teams could quite easily say at the start of the day, they thought this wicket would turn more than it has so far, but again, it's just about tomorrow for us, build pressure, bowl in some good areas and get that ball (off) variable bounce", Luke Ronchi added.

Ronchi said the pitch here at the MCA Stadium is not the one to assure batters that they have settled down. "We saw some balls today really jumped off a length and then some stayed a little bit, they just skidded through a little bit, it's going to be a surface where maybe as the game goes on you're not going to feel like you're actually in", he added.

(With PTI Inputs)