India vs New Zealand: Martin Guptill’s final chance to revive his floundering Test career

More than the external factors, it is the internal demons that Guptill has to deal with. He must address the need to bring a mental shift in his approach.

When the New Zealand selectors sat down earlier this month to pick the Test squad for a difficult tour to India, they had a task at hand. While not much debate was expected for other spots, which were more or less occupied by worthy players, the opening slot was their bone of contention. They had this dilemma on whether or not to pick Martin Guptill to partner Tom Latham and their apprehensions were justified. With only one Test fifty in his last 11 innings, he had done little to inspire confidence. But when the squad was announced, Guptill was retained.

The selectors decided to give him one more chance — possibly the last — to revive his Test career. While the cricket experts thought it was the right time to blood young opener Jeet Raval, who is also familiar with the Indian conditions having played his youth cricket there, the men who mattered thought otherwise. “Guppy [Guptill] has experience in subcontinent conditions, and we still believe if he plays his natural game and transfers that white ball style across to Tests he can be a very successful Test match cricketer,” is what selector Gavin Larsen said after the New Zealand squad for India tour was announced.

‘Transfer that white ball style across to Tests’ is what the selectors are expecting of him. They desperately want him to bring his style of belligerent limited-overs hitting into Tests as well. They want him to do what Virender Sehwag did for India and what David Warner does for Australia. This is not at all surprising, for his record in the shorter formats of the game is exceptional. He averages over 43 in 129 One-Day Internationals (ODI) and has a strike rate of over 131 in Twenty20 Internationals (T20I), where he is consistently ranked amongst the top five in the world.

He has an ODI double hundred to his name and is a part of elite club which has only four other members apart from him. But when he dons the whites, the numbers tell a different story.

Tests: 44 | Innings: 83 | Runs: 2,427 | HS: 189 | Bat Ave: 29.59 | 100s: 3 | 50s: 16

Parallels could be drawn here with Rohit Sharma and honestly, there is no apparent reason for the same. Guptill’s Test career thus far spans over seven and a half years. During this period, the story has been something on these lines: He got chances, he got dropped, he scored heavily in limited-overs, he returned back to Tests, and he continued to disappoint. His Test career had a two year hiatus between May 2013 and May 2015. The selectors looked beyond him after his frustrating returns and opted for Hamish Rutherford, who too did not do anything special to retain his place.

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Then came the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, which he ended as the highest run-getter — 547 in 9 innings at 68.37 with a mammoth 237 not out against West Indies. No prizes for guessing, he was soon back in the Test squad. But the story never changed.

Indian subcontinent woes

Guptill’s overall Test record, which is below ordinary otherwise, looks much better when compared to his record in the Indian subcontinent. On the 16 occasions that he has batted there, he has gone past fifty only two times.

Tests: 8 | Innings: 16 | Runs: 331 | HS: 85 | Bat Ave: 20.68 | 100s: 0 | 50s: 2

In this part of the world, his batting average drops from a career average of 29.59 to 20.68. In India, he averages 23.37 from the four Tests that he has played. If numbers and past record are anything to go by, Guptill is going to have a tough time facing the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra, who have floored the Australians and the Proteas on the Indian dustbowls in the past. The wickets for the three Tests are expected to be spin friendly, which further compounds his problems, as the visiting sides have invariably faced issues dealing with the spin threat in India.

Final chance

When New Zealand arrived in India earlier this year for the ICC World T20 2016, they opened the tournament by making a statement. They faced tournament favourites and hosts India in the first match of the main round and beat them convincingly by a margin of 47 runs. The Kiwis used their main threat as their weapon in that game as their spinners shared nine wickets between them. Guptill too had a role to play in that game. The scorecard may suggest he got a mere six runs in that match, but the impact of those six runs was later evident in their win.

Facing the first ball — being bowled by Ashwin — of a high-pressure World Cup opener in India, Guptill smashed it for a six straight past Ashwin’s head. The capacity crowd was silenced, the bowler left stunned. This was a statement! The six reflected the fearless spirit and approach with which the Kiwis wanted to play in India.

When Guptill takes guard in Kanpur in the first Test starting September 22, he will have a monumental task ahead of him. But he needs to back his natural game to come good and needs to play with the same approach, for that is the only way he knows how to play the game. His position in the team is under tremendous pressure. “He’s got three very big Tests in front of him. The reality is this is a really important Test series for Martin. His numbers are down, but we do believe this is an environment in which Martin Guptill can prosper,” Larsen had said after the team was announced.

But more than the external factors, it is the internal demons he has to deal with. He must address the need to bring a mental shift in his approach. When he started his career seven and a half years ago, he was earmarked as the one with tremendous potential and the one for future. He has realised that potential too, albeit only in limited-overs cricket. It is high time he comes good in the longest format of the game. In December 2015, his 156 had set the tone for the series against Sri Lanka. That was in favourable home conditions, but there is little reason why he cannot repeat the same. If he does stay positive and work hard in this series, he can revive his floundering Test career.

(A self-confessed cricket freak, Chinmay Jawalekar is a senior writer with CricLife and CricketCountry. When not writing or following cricket, he loves to read, eat and sleep. He can be followed here @CricfreakTweets)

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