Ross Taylor thinks sweep is the most profitable shot against Indian spinners

New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor revealed that his team will have to play out of their skins to beat India in the upcoming 3 match Test series. India is a very formidable side in their own den and it will require a monumental effort from Kane Williamson and his boys to come out triumphant.

Asked whether winning overseas series have become increasingly difficult for visiting teams seeing the trend in recent times, Taylor said it was pretty difficult to pinpoint a reason for the prevailing trend.

“I don’t know if there is one particular reason. If you are referring to India, they are just a very good team and it is hard to beat them at home. In terms of overseas victory for us, we have not won a lot of series, we have won Tests overseas but series have been hard to come by. But that is the challenge of Test cricket. Hope we play good cricket here,” said Taylor on eve of the team’s three-day warm-up match against Mumbai at the Feroz Shah Kotla.

One of the toughest challenges for Taylor and other batsmen will be to tackle the Indian spinners. Ashwin and Jadeja were lethal in India’s last home series against South Africa and the Kiwi batsmen would look to come prepared to counter them. When asked about his plans to counter the Indian spinners, Taylor said he would like to stick to his strengths and one of them for Taylor is the sweep shot.

“The sweep shot is something that I played a lot at the start of my career, it is also something I tried to get away from, especially in Tests, but anytime you play in the sub-continent, you have got to be able to play sweep or a cut shot.

“We have talked about it in the team sessions. But it is not everyone’s strength to play the sweep. For somebody like a Brendon (McCullum), it was not the sweep shot, it was the reverse sweep shot that he played with success to put the pressure back on the bowler.

“We have players who can play the reverse sweep. So, we got to see what happens and play to your strengths,” said Taylor referring to McCullum’s 225 in Hyderabad in 2010.

Taylor was asked whether abolishing the toss was a good option to negate the home advantage to which he said,

“I played county cricket this summer (where there was no toss and visiting teams got to pick). I guess it was for teams to stop producing a favorable wicket.

“Everyone has been talking about the South Africa series (in India), the games were over pretty quickly. Once again it is not for me to speculate, what the wicket is going to be. They always do turn over here, whether it is day one day three.

“Coming back to toss, it was a bit of a success in England. But I still feel it has a place in cricket.”

Speaking about the aggressive brand of cricket India is playing at the moment, Taylor said, ”I think all teams are playing aggressive cricket. Anytime you play in India, it is a challenge.”