New Delhi, Aug 27: In a desperate bid to break their dismal track record in India, New Zealand team management has devised innovative and unconventional ways of training to counter Indian conditions during their upcoming cricket test series.
Loose soil on artificial pitches to create uneven bounce, bowlers delivering from 15 metres away, shining lights and sudden noises in the background and clusters of mock fieldsmen in the nets are some of the methods to be used by the team when it assembles for a camp at New Zealand cricket's high performance centre in Christchurch next week.
These unconventional training methods are aimed at pushing the players out of their comfort zones and gearing them up for the challenges ahead.
Interim coach Ashley Ross, to whom the credit goes for devising the training techniques, said he was leaving no stone unturned to prepare the team for the tour of India, where even the formidable Australians led by Steve Waugh could not win a series two years ago.
"We are mindful of creating as many stresses as possible so as to help the players adapt to these stresses and in a way innoculate themselves.

"We are trying to tick off every box so that we're best prepared, and there are no excuses come October 08, (day one of the first test in Ahmedabad)," he was quoted.

Bureau Report