Mumbai: Tom Latham, on Thursday walked in to bat when New Zealand were 73/3 in the 16th over when Board President’s XI’s spinners- Karn Sharma and Shabaz Nadeem were looking to take the game away from the visitors.

But then along with Ross Taylor, Latham swung the game in favour of Kiwis, as the duo shared a 166-run partnership for the fourth wicket.

The wicket-keeper batsman after the game spoke about his new role of batting in the middle order, having spent his almost entire career opening the innings.

“It is obviously a little bit of change from the last couple of years but that is something that we discussed about moving to that position. It was nice to have spent some time in the middle and get familiar with that role today,” the 25-year-old southpaw batsman stated.

“It is probably a more of a mental shift, as opposed to technical, getting those tactics right… probably spinners will be bowling through that middle (overs). I guess it is sticking to your game plan and obviously a little bit different to batting at the top,” he further added about his new role, as its more of a mental adjustment than a drastic technical change for top athletes.

Challenge from spinners
India’s spin duo of wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzavendra Chahal wrecked havoc in recent series against Australia and the Kiwi batsman is ready to face the challenge.
“Obviously we will do our scouting. A couple of left-armers and the leggie playing today, that is an ideal preparation. Whatever we need we can get… stuff from the footage and that sort of things. We obviously know that they are quality bowlers and have done really well in the previous series,” said the southpaw batsman.

The last time Kiwis played here, they managed to take the series until the last game before going on to lose the game. Latham too had a series to remember as he scored 244 runs in five games, and he is banking on that experience and today’s innings to take it into the first game, as Black Caps will try and win the series against Virat Kohli’s in-form men.