Home series lost after 12 years as India capitulate
The way India came out playing reckless shots on the first morning expecting New Zealand to roll over backfired, and they were unable to stem the tide
India crashed to a home Test series defeat in Pune on Saturday, their first in 12 years, with the most notable feature being the ease with which the Rohit Sharma-led team went down. That series 12 years ago was lost to a well-oiled England team after some hard-fought battles while this defeat came against an unfancied New Zealand without the hosts offering even a pretence of a fight.
Before the start of this series under new coach Gautam Gambhir, India had won 18 consecutive Tests series at home and few observers, who were not Kiwis, expected New Zealand to end the record streak that began back in 2012.
But Tom Latham and his side didn’t just beat India. They outplayed them in every department, first in Bengaluru (where they won by 8 wickets) and then in Pune (where they won by 113 runs), to help New Zealand win their first-ever series in India with a match still to be played. The Kiwis have been touring India since 1955 but had won just twice in 36 games. Now, they have two wins in a week.
“It is a collective failure. The team has failed to accept the challenge thrown at us,” captain Rohit Sharma said at the post-match presentation. “Disappointing. It is not what we expected. New Zealand played better cricket than us. We failed to respond to challenges and we sit here with that result. I don’t think we batted well enough to get runs on the board.”
Not batted well is an understatement. The team management miscalculated the advantage New Zealand players had of a tough series in Sri Lanka in preparation. Using the lessons learnt in Galle, Latham’s men have been one step ahead of Rohit Sharma’s team in the two Test matches.
The way India came out playing reckless shots on the first morning expecting New Zealand to roll over backfired, and they were unable to stem the tide.
Ironically, left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner, whose best-ever show was a three-wicket haul before the second Test, outshone India’s veteran spinners Ashwin and Jadeja on Pune’s spin-friendly track. In the first innings, he wrecked India with a seven-wicket haul. That he was allowed to repeat the feat in the second innings for a six-wicket spell, spoke poorly about India’s think tank’s inability to come up with a quick counter plan. It also spoke volumes about how the current generation of batters plays spin.
The senior batters didn’t show the way either. It was a poor game for both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. The former was out in single digits in both innings, the latter for a duck and 17. Without their seniors stepping up, the batting crumbled, all out for 156 in the first and 245 in the second.
The bigger worry is that their form hasn’t been great for a while now. In the last five years, Kohli has averaged 33.94 over 35 Tests and Sharma has averaged 38.67 over 33 matches.
The three Test defeats for India in 2024 -- two against New Zealand this month and against England in January -- also mark only the third occasion that India have lost three or more Tests at home in a calendar year. They lost four in 1969 and three in 1983.
Still, it all comes back to a team that just wasn’t up for the challenge this time around. It happens, as Sharma said. But it also means the end of something great.
Since the start of 2013, India had played 53 Tests at home, won 42 (16 by an innings) and lost just four. Now, they will have to start all over again.
Shock NZ series loss complicates WTC final maths
India’s consecutive losses to New Zealand means they must not only win the final Test in Mumbai but also win three of the five Tests in the upcoming series in Australia. If India slip up and South Africa go on to win all their remaining five Tests in the current World Test Championship cycle, they and Australia can pip India to the post and book berths for the final.
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