After South Africa, what is India's game plan for New Zealand?

The just concluded India’s tour of South Africa has did not have a lot to take home as far as the visitors are concerned. They lost the ODI series 2-0 and the test series 1-0. However, despite the fact that India did not register a single win in the tour, this tour in the eyes of the general public and the experts was not the worst for India. Is this a valid argument? – might well be. India met head on with the one-day series head on without playing a single practice match and lost all of them badly apart from the one which was washed out. But can we expect a sub-continent side to do well in some of the most bouncy tracks in the world without playing a single practice match – No. So, it was a scheduling problem which the board made and it’s only fair that we cut the team some slack, after all this team ranks No.1 in one-days and has performed well all around the world. Moving onto tests, if you were following it keenly, you would definitely argue that India had a lot to ride home about starting from that gutsy display at Durban which nearly earned them a win. This Indian test team is a young side, for which the time has come to reestablish India as a power house in test cricket outside of the sub-continent and the journey for this has already started in South Africa, which would be followed by tours of New Zealand, England and Australia. Taking this into account the young side took giant strides in the rainbow nation with the likes of Pujara and Kohli reaffirming their increasing status as test players and Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane coming to the party and making a case for a place in the team.
However, now it is imperative for India to think of what’s next. New Zealand has never been a happy hunting place for the Indians although they won their last time around. Although the batting in tests was satisfactory in South Africa, bowling still needs to improve a lot. It is only good that youngsters like Ishwar Pandey and Varun Aaron have been given a chance and I believe that Aaron could be drafted straight into the playing XI because of his raw pace. India are going in with six bowlers given the conditions and so let’s hope we get a couple of good fast bowlers out of this tour ahead of the tour of England. India could also use Rahane as a reserve opener if need be as he has opened for Mumbai in the past. Apart from that, Rohit still remains a question mark because of his mercurial nature and so it’s important for him that he won’t let go off this opportunity to cement his position at No 5. Moreover, India can use the services of Jadeja in tests, who seems to be a better bet than Ashwin in overseas conditions because of the pace at which he bowls. As far as the one-dayers are concerned, India should continue to do what they have been doing in the past year or so which has propelled them to No.1 in ODIs but they need to get used to the conditions as quickly as possible. Overall, I think India has a reasonably good chance of doing well in New Zealand if they do the basics right and learn from their mistakes quickly. Win here would be an ideal launching pad ahead of the tours of England and Australia.