MUMBAI: In
Tom Latham, the New Zealand squad has someone who looks equipped to take on the Indian spinners in their own backyard and that is the reason why the Black Caps have pushed down the otherwise regular opener to the No 5 slot. The left-hander gave ample evidence of his skills against tweakers when he followed up his 59 in the first warm-up tie with an impressive 108 against Indian Board President's XI in the second match on Thursday at the
Brabourne Stadium
.
Latham, on his last visit to India in 2016-17, was the only New Zealand batsman who could stand up to the wiles of R
Ashwin and
Ravindra Jadeja as he scored 194 in the three Tests.
"It is probably more of a mental shift, as opposed to technical, getting those tactics right... probably spinners will be bowling through the middle (overs)," said Latham of his batting in the middle. "I guess it is sticking to your gameplan and obviously a little bit different to batting at the top.
"The ball is not as quite as new, but on the other hand there are more gaps and I guess the switch is more tactical and mental as opposed to anything else," he said.
The 25-year-old was a bit coy to admit that he was his team's best player of spin and as a consequence was being made to bat in the middle-order.
"I am not too sure (if he's the best player of spin), I guess it is probably a mixture of both," said Latham.
"Having Colin at the top can be very destructive and if him and
Martin
(
Guptill
) can get going... we can be unstoppable," he added.
Munro and Guptill are not known for their ability to bat against spinners and it's anybody's guess that India captain
Virat Kohli may toss the ball to one of his lead spinners pretty quickly.