IND vs NZ: Examining the way forward for Team India after abject surrender against Black Caps in Test series

What had been considered unthinkable by some finally happened on Saturday with Team India losing a Test series at home for the first time in more than a decade.

An entire generation had grown up watching teams led by MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma (also Ajinkya Rahane, taking the one-off Test against Afghanistan into account) destroy visiting teams with bat as well as ball and pull off one clinical victory at home after another.

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There even had been a few occasions where the Indian team had looked vulnerable and lost the opening game. The power of home advantage, however, would inspire the hosts to bounce back in style every single time and add yet another series trophy to their collection, preserving their undefeated record in the process.

Of all the teams that could have ended India’s streak of 18 consecutive series wins at home since England’s 2-1 triumph in the 2012-13 season, New Zealand’s chances appeared highly unlikely.

Not only did the Tom Latham-led Black Caps arrive in India after a 0-2 sweep in Sri Lanka, they had also won just two Tests on Indian soil since their first visit in 1955, with the last one coming in 1988. Latham and Co, however, not only pulled off New Zealand’s first-ever series win in India, they did it in some style.

From bowling India out for a paltry 46 in Bengaluru and collecting a humongous 356-run lead in response to ensuring the hosts’ plan of turning to spin in Pune ended up backfiring on them, the Black Caps conquered the Indians on their own turf like few teams had in the history of Test cricket in India.

Read | NZ’s blueprint for historic series win in India: From firing ‘first shot’ to carefully-crafted plans

Captain Rohit and head coach Gautam Gambhir will no doubt be rallying their troops in what is one of the lowest points in Indian cricket in recent years, and set their sights on winning the third and final Test at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium that gets underway on Friday.

With World Test Championship points and a place in next year’s final at Lord’s at stake, the Mumbai Test is by no means a dead rubber even if the series trophy will end up in New Zealand’s possession at the end of their tour of the subcontinent.

At the same time, Team India will need to undergo radical changes after their abject surrender against the Kiwis, which we look at in greater detail below:

Seniors need to step up

The most popular sentiment among Indians on social media after the series defeat against the Black Caps is that both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli need to retire, preferably sooner rather than later. And from Test cricket at the very least if not from international cricket altogether.

It is no secret that the two stalwarts have underwhelmed in this series, even when taking their half-centuries in the second innings in Bengaluru into account. Had one of them dished out an innings of substance and supported Yashasvi Jaiswal during the chase of the improbable 359-run target in Pune, India would have put up a much better challenge with the bat than what they produced on Saturday.

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Gone are the days when the Indian team would drop a captain in the middle of a series of a tour, which was the case with Sourav Ganguly shortly after Greg Chappell joined the Indian team as head coach in 2005. So it is highly unlikely that the BCCI will cave in to fan demands “retire” them as per Cricket Twitter’s wishes.

Both Rohit and Kohli, however, will have to understand that their star power does not exempt them from criticism, and that they cannot afford to be seen as a liability to the team, even if in one format.

Shot selection needs improvement

India’s shocking batting performance under overcast conditions in Bengaluru or their abject surrender in both innings in Pune on a wicket that was by no means a raging turner doesn’t entirely come down to their ability. Quite a few batters were guilty of throwing their wickets away by swinging their bats wildly when the situation called for a more measured approach.

Sarfaraz Khan’s awkward drive away from the body off Matt Henry’s bowling during the mayhem on Day 2 in Bengaluru was one such example. As was Ravindra Jadeja’s decision to go for a wild pull in just his sixth delivery in the same innings. And there were plenty more such examples on Day 2 in Pune when India ended up falling more than 100 runs short after bowling the Kiwis out for 259.

“I thought I saw the shot selection chosen by the Indian batters wasn’t great at all. I mean, the first session certainly cost India this whole day. I mean, it was disappointing, but credit to the New Zealand bowlers as well. Though they bowled in really good areas, they varied the pace and kept at it. You know, they never looked to sort of be hassled. They attacked. That was something that was lacking.

“When India bowled first, they attacked the Indian batters, not worried about their reputation. They felt that on the surface we had a chance,” Indian spin legend Anil Kumble said on JioCinema on Friday.

Rohit and Gambhir might need to re-think their tactics

The series could have been a vastly different one had Rohit simply opted to bowl in Bengaluru in overcast conditions on a Chinnaswamy wicket that offered plenty of assistance for pacers – conditions that made the Kiwi pace trio of Matt Henry, William O’Rourke and Tim Southee feel at home.

Rohit was perhaps confident of surviving a tense first over from the Black Caps seam attack, even with the prodigious swing that was expected in such conditions, and had even picked an extra spinner expecting the Chinnaswamy wicket to be dry underneath the moisture and aid turn later in the game.

Needless to say, the plan backfired spectacularly on Rohit and the home team, to the point where India ended up getting shot out for less than 50 for the first time in a home Test, and were playing catch-up not just in the Bengaluru Test but in the subsequent match as well.

That wasn’t the only time Rohit’s captaincy was questioned; there were those who felt Bumrah should have been brought on after Tim Southee’s arrival at the crease after New Zealand had been reduced to 233/7 in the first innings, and dismissed him early instead of the hosts allowing him to score 65 and stitch together a game-changing partnership with Rachin Ravindra.

Later, Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar would slam Rohit for setting defensive fields during the second Test in Pune and label him a negative captain.

“If you had fielders like that long-on and long-off for the spinners before a lofted shot had been played, the captain would’ve been called a defensive captain. He’s a defensive captain, he’s a negative captain. Here now you try and block the boundaries,” Gavaskar said while on commentary duty on the opening day of the second Test.

Rohit no doubt is among the better captains in Indian cricket history, especially in the limited-overs formats. However, there have been those who have questioned his credentials in Test cricket since he took over captaincy across formats in early 2022. And the only way he can dispel such criticism is with better planning and with more attacking leadership in the longest format of the game.

Domestic cricket needs to be taken more seriously

Last, but certainly not the least, the defeat against New Zealand also raises questions over India’s ability to play spin, or even their ability to thrive in home conditions the way past Indian teams lead by Kohli, Dhoni and others used to. Pune was by no means the minefield that it was in 2017 for the first Test against Australia, and yet the Indian batters capitulated against Mitchell Santner not once but twice in as many days.

The BCCI had only recently made it compulsory for contracted cricketers, including seniors, to play the Duleep Trophy ahead of the home season, although Rohit, Kohli, Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin had been exempted from it. It certainly was a positive first step on the board’s part, but the rule will have to be enforced more strictly in the future if the Indian batters are to improve their spin game.

Read | How Mitchell Santner’s heroics in Pune exposes a chink in Team India’s armour

The Australian team that will face India in the marquee five-Test series that gets underway in November is currently preparing for the same by playing for their respective state teams in the Sheffield Shield. That includes captain Pat Cummins and his pace colleague Mitchell Starc to star batter Steve Smith. Maybe the Indians could take a leaf out of their book and adopt a similar approach towards red-ball cricket.

The legendary Sachin Tendulkar, after all, had made his final Ranji Trophy appearance at the age of 40 during the 2013-14 season in Lahli, Haryana. Kohli, in comparison, has not played domestic cricket since 2012 while Rohit’s last appearance came four years later (at a time when he was yet to be a Test regular).