The Indian Cricket Fans have witnessed one of the worst humiliating Home Test series losses against the Kiwis.
After winning a Test Match against India in India after a gap of 36 years, the Kiwis did the impossible of not only winning the second but also the third Test thus completing an emphatic 3-0 whitewash in the 3-match Test series.
The third Test match lose completed the New Zealand clean sweep on Indian soil, a feat no other Test-playing nation has done against India in its Test history.
New Zealand became the first team in the history of the game to beat India 3-0 in their own home in a 3-match series.
The Kiwis became only the fourth side to whitewash India in a series of 3+ Tests series after England (4), Australia (3), and West Indies (once).
It is also the first-ever instance of New Zealand winning three Tests in a series, be it home or away.
The Kiwis had also never won the first three Tests of a series away from home in their history.
Here is how the social media was a buzz after the embarrassing series loss
Taking to social media, Sehwag criticised India’s poor batting against spinners throughout the series
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“While as supporters it’s imperative to support the team but this has been a terrible performance from our team. The skill to play spin certainly needs an upgrade and certain experimentations are good for the shorter format but in Test cricket doing some needless experimentations just for the sake of it was indeed poor,” Sehwag wrote on Instagram.
Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan questioned the absence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in domestic cricket. The two batters did not appear in any of the Duleep Trophy matches ahead of the Bangladesh series last month.
Harbhajan wrote on X.
Earlier generations batsman’s never played on these kind of tracks . These tracks are prepared for 2/3 day test matches . You Don’t need Murli, Warne or saqi on these pitches to get the teams out. Anyone can get anyone out https://t.co/xJynSAfDqS
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) November 3, 2024
SuperSports Views
From 2013 to 2020, India lost just one of their 34 home Tests.
After last week’s defeat to New Zealand, they’ve lost five Tests since 2021, including three in 2024
Visiting Teams use to struggle against Indian spin in the past but with more and more cricket being played in subcontinental conditions that advantage slowly started disappearing. Batsmen became more technically proficient. Graham Gooch and Kevin Peterson used to travel to India a month before an upcoming Indian test series to practise spin. Joe Root had single handedly won a Test match recently in a turning wicket in India
Indian teams in the past had a strong batting lineup and even in home conditions, they did not have to resort to rank turners to win home series.
In the past Indian conditions meant that for the majority of 3 days, the pitches were conducive to stroke making and the pitch would then start turning in the 4th and 5th day.
In the past too on a turning 4th and 5th-day wicket Indian batsmen including the great Sachin Tendulkar have struggled against quality spin.
So why blame the current Indian batsmen when the pitch starts behaving like a 4th day-turner from the start of the test match?
What went wrong for Team India?
Over reliance on Turner
Whoever is in the helm of controlling how the pitch should be prepared for a Home Test series should be held accountable for the series loss. By making rank turners, the match will eventually end up as a 3-day test match. In the process, have they forgotten that even the Indian Batsman has to bat in the same very pitch?
This has been the biggest flaw.
The worrying part is that part-time spinners like Joe Root, and Glenn Phillips also become match-winners with their bowling in rank turners. So the opposition too can take advantage in such situations.
Indian Batsmen are better Players of Spin – A Myth
There is a myth that Indian batsmen play spin better than other teams which is factually wrong. In our research, Pakistan (not the current one) and Sri Lanka have historically played spin better than India.
India was never a good batting team against
Quality spin. Many would argue that the Indian team of the past were better players of spin. This is only partially true as the India team never made rank turners for the home series as vehemently practiced today.
The opposition teams in the past never had quality spin bowling attacks with the exception of Muralitharan, Shane Warne, and England’s Graham Swann. Visiting teams seldom played 2 quality spinners.
Better prepared Opposition
Before any India series, the visiting opposition team are focussed and come with a planned strategy to negate home advantage. New Zealand Team is one of the most well-prepared team when they play any format of the game and they play their best against India.
Toss becomes the King
Test match is a 4 innings game. Captains always opt to bat first in Indian conditions knowing the difficulties in batting on a 4th and the 5th day pitch.
So, a captain winning the toss will bat first to pile up a first innings total to dominate the match.
On the other hand, the only solution to dominate the test match after being put to bowl first is to get the opposition out quickly and built in a huge 1st innings lead to avoid batting last to chase a huge target.
There are only handful of instances when a team has successfully chased a 4th inning huge total in India.
Test Cricket never a priority
Stars in the Indian team with the exception of Ravichandran Ashwin do not play the long format domestic cricket or for that matter any format of domestic cricket. Even before the New Zealand or the Bangladesh series, stars like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli made no effort to participate in the local Ranji competition. With no practice on turning tracks at home, these players are a walking wicket and struggle even when a part-time is called in to bowl.
Lack of Domestic Quality spinners
While the domestic circuit can help batsmen to sharpen up their technic against spin, quality spinners are very few. Most of the spinners are used as a run saving tool rather than a wicket taking option.
Questionable team selection
Not playing Axar Patel who could have been a perfect replacement for any one pacer in the side.
Axar has proven to be one of our most reliable batters against spin which the coach and captain missed.
Playing Siraj who has been struggling to take wickets. Mohd. Siraj might be a handful in Australian conditions but he was toothless in the entire series.
Dropping Jasprit Bumrah for the last test also proved costly.
Not dropping out of form batsmen proves that star culture persists in the game.
India adopting an ultra-aggressive batting approach
When the batsman is unable to trust their defence, Indian batsmen tend to play the ultra-aggressive batting approach. Test matches were known for patience and temperament which seems to be absent with this Rohit Sharma-led side.
How has this series whitewash hurt India’s chances in the World Test Championship
India has lost momentum in the WTC cycle, seriously harming its chances of reaching their third final of the World Test Championship.
India faces a tough task with their final 5 Test matches of the WTC cycle in Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
How has this series whitewash hurt India’s chances in the World Test Championship
India thereby slipped to the second spot in the WTC rankings, with a PCT dip to 58.33, falling behind defending champions, Australia (62.5).
India cannot afford to lose a single match in the Border Gavaskar Trophy and has to win the series with a 4-0 margin to qualify to the finals on their own.
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