India can take heart from the fact that New Zealand's recent home record isn't quite as daunting as it used to be in the 1980s. Of the 17 home series since 1991, New Zealand have lost seven and won only five. The defeats have come against England (twice), Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, West Indies and Australia. Apart from this, they have also lost one-off Tests against Pakistan (twice) and South Africa. India's four wins in 16 Tests have all been fashioned largely by spinners. Erapalli Prasanna and Bapu Nadkarni were the architects of the 3-1 series win in 1967-68, while Prasanna and BS Chandrasekhar took 19 out of 20 wickets in India's Auckland triumph of 1975-76.

Since 1975-76, India have suffered 0-1 series defeats thrice in New Zealand – in 1980-81, 1989-90 and 1998-99. Each time, India lost the first match played, and then struggled to come back (In 1998-99, India lost the second Test of the series, after the first was washed out without a ball being bowled).

India have played 16 Test matches in New Zealand, winning four and losing five. Nine centuries have been scored and bowled have taken five-fors nine times. Top Indian wicket-takers in New Zealand

	P	Runs	Wkts	Av	BB
EAS Prasanna	7	674	35	19.25	8-76
Bishan Bedi	6	493	20	24.65	6-127
Kapil Dev	7	632	15	42.13	4-34
J Srinath	3	520	15	34.66	5-95
RJ Shastri	3	277	15	18.46	5-125

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