What India Can Takeaway From New Zealand's Performance Against England

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The World Test Championship(WTC) Final is all set to begin on Friday as both India and New Zealand will fight for the special Test mace. 

The two top teams of the championship have almost nothing that breaks them apart, be it bowling or batting. This means that it'll all come down to which team will adapt to the conditions well and execute its skills better. 

New Zealand has been in England for almost 20 days now and has played two test matches against the home team and ended up on the winning side. While this may alarm India about how well the Kiwis have got their rhythm ahead of the all-important game, but at the same time, the Virat Kohli-led side can take away things that they can also apply in the matches to come as they not only play the WTC Final but also a five-match series against England in August. 

1) Swing - In the two-match test series, New Zealand swung the ball more than England. The Kiwi bowlers were able to generate more swing than their opposition which helped them get early breakthroughs and kept the bowlers in the game for more time.

The New Zealand pace bowlers have dominated their English counterparts in terms of average swing found in this series, finding more than twice as much movement.

ENG: 0.86° - NZ: 1.64°#ENGvNZ

— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) June 13, 2021

The seam and swing will be the key against New Zealand since even though are likely to score more, but that'll also enhance the chances of India getting a wicket since, in the series against England, New Zealand had a higher false shot rate than the home team. 

Curiously, through the series - the New Zealand batsmen have had a higher false shot % than England's (18.6% - 17.7%)

However, their batsmen have averaged over 8 runs more per wicket (34.85 - 26.36) through the contest.#ENGvNZ

— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) June 13, 2021

India's pacers have been terrific while bowling seam deliveries, if they can make the Duke ball swing more, New Zealand and England are bound to struggle against it. 

2) Attacking the stumps - The New Zealand bowlers made the English batters play more and didn't let them leave the ball. The more bowlers attack the line of the stumps, the more there will be a chance of batters edging the ball or play a false shot. 

New Zealand have made the England batsman play more often than any other innings in the series. England have left just 15.6% of their deliveries in this innings. #ENGvNZ

— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) June 12, 2021

There won't be a surprise if India follows this strategy since they applied the same tactics during the test tour of Australia and it worked wonders for them.