Cricket: India will take no prisoners

Life won't be any easier when the Black Caps move from Bangladesh to India - Sachin Tendulkar is privately telling friends and family he is desperate for his 50th test century.

There is also a new Indian batsman mentally capable of scoring hundreds after the death of a parent and another whose bat produced multitudinous runs for five years to get his break in the test line-up.

That is a taste of the resistance and mental application New Zealand will encounter against India in test matches and one-day internationals.

The first test starts in 10 days and the Black Caps will be meeting an Indian side ranked best in the world, having dispatched Australia 2-0. Losing the one-day series 4-0 to Bangladesh will not aid morale.

Mitigating the situation is the fact the Australians did not have the vintage look of former years, with a mediocre bowling attack. Bangladesh are on the up - but it is little consolation.

There is hope, even from an Indian perspective, that those regulars in the Indian Premier League such as skipper Daniel Vettori, Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum might make good of the conditions and produce a decent contest over three tests.

Two wickets - Ahmedabad (November 4-8) and Nagpur (November 20-24) - are expected to take spin so Jeetan Patel might be best to warm up his arm.

Hyderabad is the second test venue (November 12-16).

It has not been used since the Black Caps played there and lost by 10 wickets in 1988-89. There is a slim hope it may contain more bounce and pace for the quick bowlers.

Casting his short, trim shadow over that is Tendulkar who, at a sprightly 37, looks like he could go for years, especially after regaining the world's number one batting ranking.

Herald on Sunday sources say Tendulkar is planning to knock off his 50th test ton against New Zealand. He will not say that publicly but is determined to make his mark against what he expects will be a modest attack.

In contrast to Tendulkar is 22-year-old Cheteshwar Pujara who made his name as the first Indian batsman in 39 years to score a 50 in the fourth innings of a test on debut.

He guided India almost all the way to victory with 72, batting in Rahul Dravid's three spot in the second innings against Australia.

Pujara is a product of Rajkot, where he played for the Saurashtra state, as did his father Arvind in the late 1970s. The young Pujara has been forced to battle away, scoring heavily in domestic cricket as the top team remained difficult to penetrate.

The other player carving through the one-day ranks is Virat Kohli who scored a winning hundred in the second match against Australia.

The 21-year-old comes from a family without a cricket tradition, yet three years ago he played an innings of Bob Blair magnitude in a Ranji Trophy match for Delhi against Karnataka which demonstrated the mental application and grit of a veteran.

Kolhi was not out going into the third day with Delhi looking at the follow-on. His father died overnight but he opted to battle on, despite being given the option to leave.

Kohli ended up with 90 runs from 238 balls, helping the Delhi side avoid padding up again straight away. He went back to the crematorium in the evening.

With such mental strength, it will be another difficult assignment for the Black Caps if they are to advance their World Cup ambitions on the sub-continent early next year.