First-innings total ‘most vital’ – Williamson

There was good news for New Zealand when Kane Williamson came to address the pre-Test press conference. He still didn’t confirm whether he will play in Indore after missing the Kolkata Test because of illness, but he will be key to one area New Zealand look to set right: first-innings total. In India, you do all your peaceful scoring in the first innings. The second is havoc. You don’t want yourself to be making up ground.

“It has shown in the first innings of each Test match that the first innings has been the most vital as batting has got harder as the game has gone on,” Williamson said. “We’ll still need to have another look at the surface here but were are still expecting first innings to be important again.”

Apart from preferably winning the toss on a surface that he described as “bare at the ends” and ‘soft”, Williamson will be expected to push that first innings a little further after they had shown a bit of promise at different times.

“It is one of those fine lines where there have been some good bits but the good bits haven’t happened for long enough,” …

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