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Follow UsOne bad toss.
One bad shot.
One bad hour of play.
One bad session.
One bad day’s play.
One bad Test match.
One bad Test series.
Over the last 12 years, the Indian cricket team has learnt to make up a lot of excuses, and the tradition only continued here against New Zealand. Post the shambolic 2-0 loss at the hands of New Zealand, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma came out to the press conference with a similar attitude that three bad sessions ultimately ended up causing India a rare home series defeat.
“Because of the 3 sessions, I don't want to react differently. Look at the number of games we have won in India. Nearly 80% of Tests we've won at home. So why look at the negative things? I don't want to create an environment where people start doubting themselves,” Rohit said in the post-match press conference.
But think about it: Was it just three bad sessions?
India are a side in transition, no doubt, but whatever they have done over the two Tests against New Zealand has had a repeated pattern, and it has made things clearer than before. Clear that India aren’t learning from their mistakes and stretching their luck to a level where nothing could repair them anymore.
Such was the case here as well. India stretched their luck, and it turned out they were thoroughly undone by a New Zealand side that came well-prepared for more than a battle. For once, India couldn’t paper over the cracks.
How India were always living on the edge
Australia, 2023: It was evident that India were on the edge throughout the series, starting with the Delhi Test. After bundling Australia for 263, India, reeling at 139/7, needed a 114-run partnership between Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel to take them to 262. Even after that, if not for *that* infamous third-innings collapse from the Aussies, India would most likely have slipped to a loss.
After the dodgy Delhi showing came the Indore Test, which they ended up losing.
Once it became obvious that a rank turner was never going to aid India and would, if anything, do grave damage to them, the hosts reverted to preparing one of the flattest decks of the decade in the fourth Test in Ahmedabad to shut down hopes of a potential drawn series.
How did India make a comeback in the England series earlier this year after going 0-1 down, what was that one point you reckon?
Jasprit Bumrah yorking Ollie Pope is a moment that comes to mind. There, throughout the series, this Indian side still needed a big hand from Bumrah, even at home. The 30-year-old ended the series with 19 wickets, averaging 16.89 in the series with a strike rate of 32.7, proving to be the point of difference.
The five-match series eventually ended 4-1 in India’s favour but the scoreline was flattering. Three of the first four Tests (minus Rajkot) were decided by fine margins and could have gone either way.
It was a similar case even in 2021 when they needed spin-heavy conditions against an English outfit weak against spin after losing the first Test in Chennai. Despite that, India were nearly caught napping when they went from 114/4 to 145 all-out in the pink-ball Test in Ahmedabad. Even in the fourth Test of that series, the team found themselves in serious trouble with the bat and needed rescue jobs from Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar to shut the door on England.
The signs have been there for quite a while now.
Pitches backfiring in crazy measures
Indore, 2023
Pune, 2024
What do they have in common? In both these games, India’s preparation of a rank turner turned out to be their worst nightmare.
New Zealand came into this clash knowing that India were going to dish out a turner, and, if anything, they were more confident than the hosts.
“If it is going to be a wicket that turns a little bit more, then we've got four spinners in our line-up that will play into their hands,” Latham said before the clash. And as it turned out, it played into the Kiwis’ hands.
With the exception of Tim Southee’s dismissal of Rohit Sharma and a run-out, 18 wickets were taken by the New Zealand spinners in Pune, with Mitchell Santner claiming 13 wickets all by himself. The surface on offer led to India’s biggest weakness - playing spin - getting exposed.
What these lottery, sharp-turning surfaces have done is bring the opposition spinners into play and bridge the gap between them and the likes of Ashwin & Jadeja. That being said, in Pune, both Ashwin and Jadeja were convincingly outbowled by Santner and Phillips; it was down to application and execution and not just the surface.
India have equally got away with these rank turners on multiple occasions in the past few years despite ordinary batting performances (first innings vs Sri Lanka in Bengaluru 2022, vs England in Ahmedabad 2021, vs Australia in Delhi 2024), but the Pune surface provided the team with the kiss of death on this particular occasion to help New Zealand breach the fortress.
Trouble by left-arm spinners
Across two of the three previous instances of India losing a home Test lies a common trouble - left-arm spinners.
In all Tests at home since 2020, India average 32 against left-arm spinners, but when you look at the isolated incidents of humiliating home losses, there has been the role of a left-arm spinner. Be it Matthew Kuhnemann destroying India in Indore with six wickets or Santner with 13 wickets here in Pune, there’s been a left-arm spinner that has continued to haunt India.
Since 2022, at home, it has been evident that India’s top-order has struggled against left-arm spin. Rohit has been dismissed eight times, Virat Kohli seven times, Gill and Iyer six times each. It was this chink in the armour that, yet again, inflicted the side’s downfall.
Santner accounted for Kohli across both innings here in Pune, while the left-arm spinner’s accuracy also led to the downfall of Rohit. Gill’s technique was exposed majorly in the first innings, with his pad prodding ahead of his bat.
India’s inability to play quality left-arm spin on tough surfaces has been quite a recurring theme, and it is a mere amalgamation of all the factors that led to Santner stealing the limelight.
Where are Kohli and Rohit when you need them?
Since 2010, an Indian opener has failed to average more than 16 in a home series on two occasions, and ironically, both of those campaigns belong to one man—Rohit. Despite the right-hander showing his prowess in the red-ball format at the start of this decade, there’s a decline in numbers that can’t really be ignored.
Across his last two series, Rohit, the opener, has averaged 10.50 and 15.50 against Bangladesh and New Zealand, respectively. The worry is how someone who has a hunger for runs managed to fail miserably.
In the Pune Test, Rohit was the only victim of pace, with that top of off-stump line tormenting him. He’s been dismissed on 50% of the occasions since 2022 at home when pacers have targeted that area.
On the other hand, teams have managed to tie up Kohli with relative ease, bowling spin. Once heralded a great dominator of spin bowling, Kohli has lost his charm to break down the tweakers. Out of 23 innings in home Tests since 2021, Kohli has been dismissed 20 times by a spinner. 20 TIMES!
With the exception of Ashwin (21 dismissals), no other Indian batter has been dismissed as many times as Kohli has against spin (20), out of which ten have come off the bowling of left-arm spinners, against whom he averages 27.3. The decline in his returns, from averaging 74.64 from 2012-20 to 27.3 since then against left-arm spinners, is definitely a big concern.
It makes India….
Over-reliance on Rishabh Pant and the lower-order batters
India's lower-order (7-9) has been too strong in home Tests since 2022, with 1647 runs, averaging a staggering 28.89, including seven fifty-run partnerships.
Throw in a returning Pant, and India’s lower order almost looked near impenetrable before this New Zealand series, making the job really tough for the opposition bowlers. Friendly reminder that Pant entered this series averaging over 61 at home while having two tons and a gazillion 90s to his name.
However, in this series, Pant aside, India's lower order flopped for the first time in an eternity. In Bengaluru, their numbers #7 to #11 added just 33 runs for 10 dismissals, the second-least runs scored by India's #7 to #11 in a home Test (in which all 11 players batted twice). Jadeja showed some fight in Pune, but ultimately, the Kiwis were able to run through India's lower order without much struggle.
For years, the lower order had been bailing the top order out, but they weren't able to do that in this series. And the continuous failure of the senior batters came back to bite the team in the backside here.
It is almost like the warning signs were always there; India were too careless, and when D-day came, it came hard with a pill that was almost tough to digest for the fans.
Like Rome wasn’t built in a day, India’s home record wasn’t breached because of one bad series; it was a culmination of many issues that have been brewing for some time now.
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