 "Team India humbled 3-0 at home: Factors behind historic defeat of Rohit Sharma and Co")
The character of a true leader shines through largely in adversity. Rohit Sharma might have overseen India’s worst phase in Test cricket on home soil, but he was quick to put his hand up and own up responsibility as leader, as captain and, perhaps most importantly, as batter.
This has been a series to forget for Rohit in more ways than one. Just four months after masterminding an extraordinary run at the T20 World Cup in the Americas, he has traversed the other end of the spectrum, going down in the history books as the first Indian skipper to be whitewashed in a three-Test series on home soil. It will be tough to live this down, no matter what happens over the next two months in Australia.
What does happen in Australia will not necessarily hinge on the events of the last three weeks. The conditions Down Under will be vastly different, the ball won’t spit and turn and bite like it has in Pune and Mumbai in the last two games. But the challenges will be different. There will be pace, there will be bounce, there will be relentless Australian pressure and there will be no place to hide.
How much should India read into their 0-3 drubbing at the hands of courageous New Zealand, admirable New Zealand, commendable New Zealand, who have gone where no team in the world has previously? A fair bit, it goes without saying. The long-held belief that India still possess the best players in the world of the turning ball has been comprehensively exploded.
It would have been fine if it turned out that they are only as good as the others elsewhere, but even that consolation can’t be snatched at. India were bemused and bewitched, befuddled and mesmerised by Mitchell Santner in Pune and Ajaz Patel in Mumbai. Left-arm spinners both, but different kinds of left-arm spinners – Santner taller and a latter flatter and metronomically accurate, Ajaz shorter but with greater variety and the ability to give the ball a greater rip.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsAlso read | Stats from third India-New Zealand Test
Bengaluru and 46 all out when play eventually got underway on day two must be viewed for what it was – an aberration without explanation. It has happened to the best, when everything has taken the edge, every edge has been snatched. It happened to India themselves in Adelaide in December 2020, when they were shot out for their lowest Test score, 36.
That they bounced back from that humiliation to destroy Australia 2-1 is perhaps a moot point right now, but 46 all out isn’t the yardstick by which India must be judged. That should be on the back of 153 and 245 in Pune, 263 in the first innings in Mumbai and a measly 121 in the second at the Wankhede, when they were set a target of 147 –competitive, but by no means unattainable.
Throughout the series, the lack of effective game plans against the turning ball stood out. There can’t be one collective template that every batter must perforce be compelled to adopt, and the think-tank has placed the onus on the individuals to work out what they believe is the best approach for each one of them.
New Zealand’s blueprint for historic Test series win over India | From firing ‘first shot’ to carefully-crafted plans
But few have been able to crack the code with any consistency or success. Rishabh Pant has been a standout exception, but there can only be one Rishabh Pant.
The rest have been transfixed like rabbits in headlights. At different stages, Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Washington Sundar have bucked the trend, but the greatest letdown has been Virat Kohli.
Once the best all-format batter of his generation, Kohli had meagre returns of 93 runs – two more than his captain – from six innings, with 70 of them coming in the second innings in Bengaluru alone.
He has looked out of sorts apart from that one knock, his defensive game questionable and his mindset open to probe. He has courted ways and means of embracing failure, including being bowled off a full toss and running himself out in the last over to stumps.
From the behemoth that he once was, striding the batting world like a colossus, he has been reduced to a mere mortal left wondering where his next big knock will come from, hardly the ideal build-up to the start of the Test series in Australia.
India will be without Rohit for at least one of the first two Tests Down Under, most likely for the opener in Perth, and therefore the onus will be on Kohli, with six tons in Australia, to shepherd an otherwise young batting group.
Also read | Current form aside, Kohli and Rohit deserve judgement only after Australia tour ends
But his foremost priority will and must be on returning to run-making ways because for India to remain competitive there, they will need a Kohli firing on all cylinders. Otherwise, Australia will be all over them like a bad rash.
India’s batters will be grateful that they won’t have to encounter a diet of spin for at least the next 11 months – between now and next October, they don’t play a Test at home – but they might occasionally get a Bengaluru redux and their resilience and composure will be tested.
It will be incumbent upon them to respond in kind because already, ‘can’t play seam, can’t play spin’ is beginning to rear its ugly head. India must also guard against fancy decision-making, such as batting first on a sticky, moist surface under overcast skies in Bengaluru, or ill-advisedly sending out Mohammed Siraj as the nightwatchman in the first innings in Mumbai.
One way of looking at things is that Murphy’s Law caught up with the Indians in this series against New Zealand – everything that could go wrong did go wrong, with no little help from the home side itself. From here, the road ahead can only be upwards. India need four Test wins in five matches in Australia to guarantee their place in the final of the World Test Championship; for now, they will take a first win. And then hopefully build from there. It won’t be easy, but whoever ever said Test cricket is straightforward.
India’s technical inadequacies against spin have been laid threadbare in the last three weeks. The next two months will be a stern examination of technique against fast bowling, and of character, attitude, mindset and bounce backability. What answers will we get?
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