With at least three out of five days of the 1st Test Match between India and New Zealand at the Eden Park in Auckland expected to be rainy, the fate of team India of registering its first win on the tour hangs in balance.
According to our forecast, a low pressure area is expected to form northeast off Auckland during the next 24 hours and may approach Auckland possibly by Friday, the second day of the Test match. Showers are also expected on Saturday and Sunday - the 3rd and 4th day of the game. Rain will be the heaviest on Friday.
New Zealand Skipper Brendon McCullum may take heart from the fact that the overcast conditions will further bolster his seam bowling attack which had done really well in the One-Day series.
"Decent covering of grass," he said. "Funny-looking grass, too, at one end. Good hard surface. Expect more bounce than it had against England. A bit of pace in it as well. Don't expect a huge amount of movement sideways, but it might just be enough." McCullum said in a press conference. McCullum also wants to field first as he thinks that batting first in such conditions may be a difficult task.
Meanwhile, the Indian counter part MS Dhoni must be concerned over getting his bowling combinations right as Indian bowlers have been clueless about line and length of their deliveries on the tour till now.
Dhoni is also looking to play crucial situations a lot better than what they did on the South Africa tour. "We have not capitalised when we had crucial situations in the game. If you talk about the last series we played (against South Africa), we had one bad session, two-and-a-half hours of bad cricket that we played. We have seen in this format, it can have a big impact on the game. It is important that when we are in a situation where we can dictate terms, it is very important we go through that phase and keep building on it."said Dhoni.
