MUMBAI: Ajaz Patel entered the India series as New Zealand’s No. 1 spinner but till the third Test, he had just four wickets to his credit in three innings. He was reduced to playing second fiddle in Pune as Mitchell Santner ran through the hosts.
Santner was ruled out of the Mumbai Test and Patel found his mojo to rekindle his love affair with the Wankhede Stadiumthe site of his greatest moment in Test cricket — a 10-wicket haul in 2021. On Saturday, his 5/103 helped Black Caps restrict India to 263 in their first innings.
“We’re going to try our best to restrict India and try to bowl them out, but it’ll be interesting to see how the wicket continues to play tomorrow. The morning sessions have been a bit different to the afternoon sessions, so if the wicket continues to play like that, if we bowl well and do our best, I think we might have a decent chance,” said Patel.
He lauded Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant for the way they batted.
“It’s not an easy surface to bat on, so those runs (by Shubman) were extremely valuable. Rishabh’s innings was a big thing too because if we had got him out early, it could have changed the dynamics of the game.”
