As Green Park Stadium in Kanpur welcomes Test cricket after a five-year hiatus, it has picked up from where it left- India vs New Zealand. The stadium last hosted a Test game in September 2016 and is now offering the red-ball game between the same rivals. It would be interesting to see if India can pull off a resounding victory, much like the 2016 red ball game, when they take of Kane Williamson's side in the first Test starting tomorrow.
Having rested their key players, New Zealand seem fully charged up. For India, the stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane has some major responsibilities to shoulder in the absence of key players- Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant.
In a total of 60 Test matches played so far between the two sides, India have won 21 games. The Kiwis have emerged victorious on 13 occasions and 26 games have concluded in a draw. While these stats depict India as heavyweights but the WTC 2021 final where the Blackcaps outplayed India would still bug the Indian side.
Ahead of the two-match T20I series between India and New Zealand that begins in Kanpur from Thursday, we have a cursory look at their head to head, Test stats and recent form.
Head to Head (All Test games)
Total Matches 60
India won 21
New Zealand won 13
Draws 26
Head to Head (Tests in India)
Total Matches 34
India won 16
New Zealand won 2
Draws 16
Most runs/ Top run-getters*
India
Player name Innings/ Runs
Virat Kohli 19/ 830
Cheteshwar Pujara 19/ 772
Ajinkya Rahane 15/ 664
New Zealand
Player name Innings/ Runs
Ross Taylor 27/870
Kane Williamson 22/ 829
Tom Latham 14/ 384
Highest run-scorers*
India
Player name Score
Virat Kohli 211
Ajinkya Rahane 188
Cheteshwar Pujara 159
New Zealand
Player name Score
Ross Taylor 151
James Neesham 137*
Kane Williamson 131
Most wickets/ Top wicket-takers*
India
Player name Innings/ Wickets
Ravi Ashwin 13/52
Ishant Sharma 15/38
Mohammed Shami 15/27
New Zealand
Player name Innings/ Wickets
Tim Southee 17/44
Trent Boult 19/41
Neil Wagner 12/21
Most hundreds*
India
Player name Number of hundreds
Virat Kohli 3
Ajinkya Rahane 2
Cheteshwar Pujara 2
New Zealand
Player name Number of hundreds
Ross Taylor 3
Kane Williamson 2
Most fifties*
India
Player name Number of fifties
Virat Kohli 6
Cheteshwar Pujara 6
Rohit Sharma 4
New Zealand
Player name Number of fifties
Kane Williamson 7
Tom Latham 5
Ross Taylor 4
Most matches*
India
Player name Number of matches
Virat Kohli 10
Cheteshwar Pujara 10
Jasprit Bumrah 10
New Zealand
Player name Number of matches
Ross Taylor 15
Kane Williamson 12
Trent Boult 10
*Current players
