Wednesday, December 18, 2002 For batting on a green, lively wicket, you must first mentally make the adjustment and go forward towards the ball. You cannot hang onto the crease. Get forward and on top of the ball, try to counter and smother any movement off the pitch. Then you lessen your chances of getting lbw, bowled or caught behind.

But at Wellington, the Indian batsmen - apart from Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar - were too scared to come forward against the fast-medium bowler. Whether it was the physical threat, I don't know, but they just didn't seem to have enough courage to come forward.

Now, after the rains at Hamilton, the wicket will be very green and even more conducive to bowlers than at Wellington. The New Zealand bowlers feel that only two players are going to hold them up at all – Dravid and Tendulkar. The rest of the Indian batsmen, they feel, are fit only for playing in the subcontinent or in one-day matches.

The New Zealand bowlers will be aiming to push them back, by bowling short for the first two or three overs and then bowling at a fuller length. The Indian batsmen have to be wary of that. They should still look to come forward every ball, until they are forced back, because otherwise, they will also miss out on scoring opportunities that come from driving the ball.

VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly - who, for all his experience, didn't seem to want to knuckle down and fight it out - were very disappointing in the last Test. Drop Laxman – whose confidence must be shattered after a pair - and ask Shiv Sunder Das to open. Put Virender Sehwag, who is not a Test opening batsman - definitely not in these conditions anyway - at No. 6.

Sehwag cannot play his natural game if it gets him out lbw and bowled through the gate - because it will happen repeatedly in these conditions. He has to move towards the ball. Even batting out of his crease would be a start. He is better off batting in front of his stumps and playing his natural game from there. That's the only solution to the problem he has got at the moment.

At Hamilton, it will again come down to Dravid and Tendulkar. All India can hope for is to try and see off the new ball with as less damage as possible. Then it gets better. But the Kookaburra ball for the first twenty overs in these conditions can do a lot.

At Wellington, New Zealand bowled a fuller length than the Indian bowlers, and that's the first thing you must to do in these conditions: attack the stumps. You don't want the ball going over the sticks, and so the more it's pitched up, the more the chances of picking wickets.

The Indian bowlers didn't learn from that example. Only Zaheer Khan proved himself; Ashish Nehra has not justified the many chances he has been given.

Ajit Agarkar should never play Test cricket because he's just not equipped – he's not tall enough, doesn't get enough bounce, is not quick enough, doesn't hurry up batsmen and doesn't move the ball. He's fine in a one-day game, but his Test bowling average is almost as bad as mine once was.

India must find one bowler who can generate a bit of bounce and Tinu Yohannan is worth giving a try. Dropping one batsman and a bowler will also be a warning to the team – and John Wright must deliver that signal.

India have played in similar fashion here for the last twenty-odd years. And you can say the same thing about New Zealand batsmen against spin bowlers in India. Both countries aren't spending enough time adjusting to the conditions that they face to make a good fist of it. That's the problem for India now – they just don't have time to make the adjustment.

Martin Crowe is a former captain of New Zealand and one of the most technically accomplished batsmen of his time. From 1981 to 1994, he played 77 Tests and made 5444 Test runs with 17 hundreds. He will be giving his expert view on India's tour of New Zealand. He was talking to Raja M.

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