Cricket News : Vice-captain Pujara says spin gives India advantage over New Zealand

India's newly promoted vice-captain Cheteshwar Pujara firmly believes spin bowling will give advantage to India over New Zealand in the upcoming two-Test series.

However, Pujara acknowledges New Zealand have got the wood over Indiain  many of the critical matches played between the two teams.

Recently, New Zealand beat India in the ICC T20 World Cup as well as the ICC World Test Champions finals in England. Pujara said, "after the WTC Finals all of us were hurt, we lost in the Finals."

Pujara also picked out Neil Wagner, who is known for his short-pitch bowling, as one of the main threats in the New Zealand bowling attack.

For the first Test that starts in Kanpur on Thursday, the Indian team will be led by middle order batsman Ajinkya Rahane and Pujara will be his vice-captain. India are without many of their regulars like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami - who are all rested after a fairly busy past six months.

On Tuesday, the in-form batsman KL Rahul was also ruled out of the Test series after he suffered a strain in his left thigh. He has been replaced by Suryakumar Yadav in the squad.