Spin bowling has long been the achilles heel for the Blackcaps batsmen, but BJ Watling is confident they can both combat it and take advantage of it on their tour of India.
The 15 man squad flew out to the sub-continent this morning, barely with enough time to unpack from their disappointing trip trip to South Africa before heading for their second long haul flight in the space of a week.
Watling told Newshub the impact made by Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner at this year's World Twenty20 event in India - while a different format - shows that India won't have it all their own way on the spin front.
"That's a good confidence booster for the two spinners and we have Mark (Craig) here as well who will be very handy in the conditions.
"As a spin group we've got things to work on, and hopefully we can challenge them in their conditions."
The fact New Zealand's never won a test series in India doesn't phase the wicketkeeper-batsman.
"We've got World class players," Watling proclaims. "Kane (Williamson) has scored runs in India, Rosco (Ross Taylor) has scored runs in India, we've got some good spinners. I think we'll definitely challenge them."It's going to be tough, we have to adapt and take the games as deep as we can."
The six week tour consists of three tests and five ODI's and opens with a warm up match against Mumbai on September 16.
Newshub.
