One of New Zealand’s newest sensations with the bat, Devon Conway, has said that defeating India on their home soil in the upcoming series will be a “massive goal” and “serious achievement” for the Blackcaps and rated the challenge tougher than defeating the Virat Kohli’s men in the ICC World Test Championship final earlier this year. He
"Definitely. That's a massive goal that we'd like to achieve. To beat India in their home conditions is probably a bigger challenge than beating them in England. It would be a serious achievement, if not as big as the World Test Championship final. That will be a very important series to try and prove that,” Conway told stuff.co.nz.
However, he said that subcontinent conditions demand batsmen to be mentally ready for the challenges of the longest format while not being in defensive mode with the bat. He said that one should trust their defence and stick to their own methods that work for them to succeed in those conditions.
"Travelling to the subcontinent and being presented with surfaces that turn, that's where you've got to be really strong mentally within your defence, trust your defence, and you've got to have a method in which you can score. If you're not looking to score runs you won't be in good positions. You've got to nail down a plan and stick to it as much as possible, even though it's going to be challenging,” Conway added.
Conway announced his arrival on the big stage in the Test series against England right before the World Test Championship final against India. He was on the money from the word go and batted with the mind and class of a Test veteran to help the Blackcaps win their first Tests series win in England after 1999.
Blackcaps would bank on him to provide an equally good start at the top of the order on the tour of India scheduled after the ICC World Cup, which is at the forefront of Conway’s agenda now.
T20Is have been his first introduction to international cricket and Conway is looking forward to his first T20 World Cup scheduled to start this month. Discussing his mindset and batting position, Conway said that he is looking to bat at number four behind Martin Guptill, Tim Seifert, and Kane Williamson, where he would be trying to “manipulate” the field and run hard between wickets to keep the scoreboard going in the middle phase of the game.
"We've got Martin Guptill up top and Tim Seifert who's done really well, and you've got the master, Kane Williamson, at three. If I could slot in at four it would be really good for the team's sake, try to manipulate those middle periods against spin and run hard between the wickets,” Conway concluded.