It's a learning process: Taylor

Since Daniel Vettori relinquished his captaincy back in January 20­11, New Zealand have not won a Test series at home or away. Unfortunately for Ro­ss Taylor, he has been the leader of this humbled pack during this extraordinary slide.

During this phase, the Kiwis managed to draw the Australians in Australia and have put it across Zimbabwe in the one-off Test match but those results surely won’t enhance the CV of the 28-year-old, who attempts to draw when they run into the Indians in the second and final Test at the M Chinnaswamy stadium here from Friday.

“No, I think it’s a new learning experience,” Taylor said during a press conference when asked if it was disappointing to see the team struggle after putting on a respectable show in Australia. “We’re playing in different conditions. Hobart was a totally different wicket to what we are up against here. Test cricket is always tough and it's character building. We are a young side, but that’s still no excuse. We’re learning both on and off the field... about each other and about the other teams. We, New Zealanders are normally fighters and we’ll be trying to fight as hard as we can in the next match.”

Looking at how R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha have exploited the spin-favouring conditions during the first Test, an experienced Vettori would have given the Kiwis something to fight with. Off-spinner Jeetan Patel did well in the first Test when he scalped four wickets, and skipper Taylor was pleased with the 31-year-old’s progress.

“I thought Jeetan Patel bowled well. Had Vettori played, Jeetan probably would not have played. Having Dan around has been good with all his experience, him being a former captain has been really helpful for me... for bouncing ideas. But Daniel can’t be around forever, and having another spinner in Jeetan Patel, who is learning the trade at 31 has
been very good as well.”

Talking about his own form, Taylor insisted that he was not too far away from scoring some big runs. “Two hundreds in 30 innings is not great, but I feel I’m not far away from scoring runs. I’m working hard. You score two centuries in 30 innings and sometimes you score two in two games. So you never know.”