When New Zealand landed in India in September, they had a rare challenge of playing six Tests in the subcontinent. They had the perfect stage to get acclimatised to the conditions with a non-World Test Championship (WTC) game against Afghanistan in Greater Noida before travelling to Sri Lanka for a two-Test series, and then return to India and try and achieve something no team has in 12 years – win a Test series in the country, and keep themselves in the race for a spot in the WTC finals.

But halfway into it, the BlackCaps find themselves in a mess. To start with, no play was possible in Greater Noida across the five days, and on the tour of Sri Lanka, the side suffered a 0-2 whitewash, after which Tim Southee stepped down from captaincy, and their best batter Kane Williamson suffered a groin injury, ruling him out of the first Test against India, starting Wednesday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

Ahead of the three-Test series against India, Tom Latham has been entrusted with the captaincy of a side, sans their top batter Williamson (temporarily) and a batting unit that has failed against quality spin in the past one year. Barring Williamson (four) and Rachin Ravindra (one), no other New Zealand batter has scored a century in this WTC cycle.

In 12 innings in 2024, New Zealand have lost 67 of 104 wickets to spin – their most in five years – and they still have six Tests to go this year. Their average of 22.58 against spin in 2024 is the worst for any team in the WTC. More recently in Sri Lanka, they lost 37 of the 40 wickets to spin.

Of New Zealand’s current top order, Williamson has scored the most runs against spin in the ongoing WTC cycle for them: 410 at an average of 37.27. But 11 of his 14 dismissals have come against spin too. The same is the case with almost every other major batter. Rachin Ravindra has fallen to spin seven out of 12 times; Glenn Phillips nine out of 12; Daryl Mitchell eight out of 12; and Devon Conway eight out of ten.

As New Zealand gear up for the stern Test in Bengaluru, without Williamson in the mix, a lot will depend on the shoulders of Latham, who has five fifties in ten Test innings in India. Ravindra had a fabulous ODI World Cup here last year, and the likes of Mitchell, Phillips and Conway all have decent exposure to the conditions through their stints at the IPL.

But having said that, facing the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in red-ball cricket in Indian conditions, means the Kiwi batters will be tested every ball. Plus there’s always the back-up of Kuldeep Yadav, whose left-arm leg-spin can be as lethal as the orthodox off-spin of Ashwin and Jadeja.

With the WTC final spot on the line, New Zealand, currently placed at No.6 in the standings, will have a slight advantage of starting the series in Bengaluru as the city has experienced decent rain in the lead-up to the opening Test, and there’s plenty of cloud cover expected throughout, even though the pitch traditionally helps the spinners, the overcast conditions could be something they could hope to work in their pace unit’s favour.