A two-day break in the tournament has allowed me some time for reflection, and the chance to write my first column for the Cricket Wellington web site.

Preparations began for our participation in the Buchi Babu tournament with a three-day camp at the High Performance Centre in Christchurch before flying out. We talked about team protocols and allocated various jobs to team members for the tour ahead.

A good deal of time was spent talking about playing spin bowling and what techniques are best employed against the various spinning options.

The idea is to work out something that suits your own style, and that you feel confident using.

We simulated Indian conditions by sprinkling dirt over the indoor wickets, which makes the ball turn and bounce more than we are used to in normal New Zealand conditions.

I prefer to play alongside and behind my front pad when playing forward, but look to play off the back foot as often as possible, and always with a straight vertical bat.

We also talked about reverse swing and how important it will be for our quicks to utilise, as the ball roughs up quite quickly and negates the normal swing early on.

As a batsman you can counter reverse swing bowling in two ways. Firstly by standing out of your crease and across your stumps, therefore considerably minimising the chance of being bowled or trapped in front.

The other option is stand right back in your crease to give yourself more time to see and then play the ball.

The rest of the time was spent catching up with each other and forming a tight bond amongst team members. On our last night the team had a dinner at Christchurch's Lone Star, where all order steak of some variety, as we are all mindful that it is likely to be our last opportunity for some time to eat a good Kiwi steak.

We were each given a tour booklet which I regard as 'our bible'.

It has everything we need in it, ranging from a day planner to our pre-tour objectives and goals.

This tour is all about learning to embrace the Indian culture and conditions as more and more cricket is played on the sub-continent.

The booklet is designed to identify what challenges and new experiences we are likely to face during our time in India and how to deal with each. This is underlined by our motto for the tour 'The expert engages in more deliberate practice and receives more accurate and consistent feedback.'

We look forward to reaching India and putting into practice some of the skills we had been practicing back in Christchurch.

© CricInfo