Anil Kumble: If you want to be the No.1 team, you shouldn’t worry about pitches

As the Men in Blue gear up for a long and gruelling home season consisting of 13 Tests in the next 6 months, India’s head coach Anil Kumble shared his thoughts about what he thinks India needs to do ahead of the 3 match test series against New Zealand. India will try to look at this series as an opportunity to reclaim their numero uno status after they surrendered their No.1 ranking to Pakistan after the last Test in their recent Caribbean tour was washed out due to rain.

Following the series against New Zealand which ends on October, the Men in Blue will lock horns against England in a 5 match Test series which begins on 9th November. The squad against the Kiwis features the same players who played in the series against West Indies only except Stuart Binny and Shardul Thakur.

India decided to go with Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan despite the duo being not in the greatest of forms. The exclusion of Gautam Gambhir from the squad despite his strong performances in the Duleep Trophy created a stir among the fans who took to Twitter to express their disappointment.

India will surely have an upper hand against New Zealand as they will play in their home conditions but coach Anil Kumble had a different approach to that. The former leg-spinner said, “When I was captain, the first question in a media conference when we played in India was ‘what do you think of the pitch?’ to which Kumble replied, “I am more concerned about what kind of cricket we play on that pitch.

The Indian media certainly scrutinises the pitch more than any other media. Everybody wants to either not read anything or read too much into what happens off the first ball that is bowled. If you want to be the No. 1 team, you shouldn’t worry about pitches.”

The head coach who was also concerned about the fitness of the players said, “Thirteen Test matches with three to four days’ gap and even during that gap, there will one day of travel, it (fitness) is going to be a challenge. We were conscious of that even in the West Indies. It is crucial that the squad remains physically fit and goes through those 13 games.”

It was the last time that the selection panel headed by Sandeep Patil picked India’s squad for the New Zealand series. The next group of selectors will be chosen after a thorough research, BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke said at the press conference.