The recent Test series against New Zealand would be one that Team India would want to forget quickly. Or, would they?
Having thrashed the Kiwis 5-0 in the T20Is in their own backyard, the Virat Kohli-led Indian team was high on confidence going into the ODI and Test series. But New Zealand turned the tables on India, blanking them 3-0 in the ODIs and 2-0 in the longer format.
The defeat in Tests hurt more. It was a mauling, no less. The Black Caps won the first Test in Wellington by 10 wickets in a little over three days, and the second inside three days by seven wickets. Though the Indian bowlers offered hope in patches, especially in the second Test, the batsmen failed collectively to rise to the occasion.
Sample this. Only two Indian batsmen managed to reach a total of 100 runs over the four innings in the two matches—Mayank Agarwal (102, including a 58 in the second innings in the first Test, which was incidentally the highest score by an Indian in the Test series) and Cheteshwar Pujara (100).
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The Indian batsmen, in Kohli's own words, “made too much of the conditions” in New Zealand. More than technique (which too was found wanting, with Kohli himself being guilty of his head falling over while playing deliveries on and around the full length), the skipper said that the Indians lost it in their heads.
True, that. Team India had an intimidating middle-order going into the Tests, with Pujara averaging 48.66 (even after the poor series), Kohli 53.62 and Ajinkya Rahane 42.88. But Pujara and Rahane could not convert their starts into match-winning or even match-saving scores.
The selection, too, was baffling. In the absence of regular openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, the team management decided to try out youngsters Prithvi Shaw and Agarwal. This when K.L. Rahul, who has been in red-hot form in the shorter formats in New Zealand, was available for selection.
India's batting powerhouse and talismanic skipper managed only 38 runs in all at a shocking average of 9.5. Kohli now has not scored a hundred in his last 22 international innings across formats. His last century came against Bangladesh in the Day-Night Kolkata Test in November 2019.
The Indian batsmen were caught hopping or playing away from their bodies or missing the incoming deliveries altogether against the Kiwi pace trio of Trent Bout, Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson, who shared 34 wickets between them in the series.
It was India's third worst batting performance in a Test series, home or away. Incidentally, the top three worst outings with the bat have come against the Black Caps.
India's bowling, too, left a lot to be desired. Ishant Sharma, who was making a comeback from injury, took a fifer in the first Test, but missed the second due to the recurrence of the injury. Strike bowler Jasprit Bumrah was India's highest wicket-taker (six scalps), but his bowling average of 31.66 and strike rate of 61.6 were his worst in the five Test series he has been part of till now in his nascent Test career.
Will coach Ravi Shastri and captain Virat Kohli learn their lessons from the disappointing series and go back to the drawing board, or will they, downplay a crushing defeat yet again? Only time will tell.
