India vs New Zealand: Questions aplenty for Kiwis, but series loss could be blessing in disguise for Kane Williamson's men

The expectation before the first match was palpable. The best home team hosting the best away team. Number 2 in the world against number 3 in the world. It was tantalising. New Zealand are one of the best teams at defending a total, while India are one of the best teams at chasing a target. New Zealand had just dispatched Sri Lanka without much fuss, while Australia had felt the wrath of India. When Kane Williamson won the toss and decided to bat in the first ODI, it could not have been better. He had chosen to put his team’s strengths up against India’s strengths, rather than trying to target any weaknesses. [caption id=“attachment_6006661” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Barring Trent Boult, there were not many positives for the hosts in the ODI series against India. AP[/caption] In hindsight, that may not have been the best move. The first over was mostly uneventful, and then Mohammed Shami got the ball, and the series was defined. He and Bhuvneshwar Kumar completely dominated the New Zealand openers throughout the series. Guptill never made it past the seventh over. Munro only made it past the seventh over once. Likewise Nichols, the makeshift opener, only managed it once, and that when there was no pressure on him, due to a small chase. Williamson struggled to cope with some clever fields and accurate bowling. He is going to have to come up with a plan to deal with the stacked slips cordon, because every team will try it against him during the World Cup after the success that India had against him. In some ways, this performance may be a blessing in disguise. He’s now going to have time to figure out how to change his game to counteract that strategy before the World Cup. If he had not seen it until the World Cup, he may not have had time to adapt. Ross Taylor was good, but not as good as most fans were hoping for. However, he was the victim of a couple of pieces of bad luck. In the first match, he was dismissed by a stunning caught and bowled, in the third match he fell to a Dhoni special, where Dhoni didn’t even notice that he was lifting his foot until after he instinctively took off the bails, and in the final match he got a poor lbw decision. Despite this, he still managed to average over 44 with a strike rate just under 90 for the series. Tom Latham was tidy with the bat, but no more than that, despite the matches often being perfectly set up for him. His dominance against the Indian finger spinners in India last tour did not translate to dominance over the wrist spinners on bouncier New Zealand pitches. With the gloves, Latham was adequate, but nothing more. Nicholls looked good, without delivering any scores. One of the traditional strengths of New Zealand has been run production from their bowlers. There were two innings of note from the bowlers, one each from Neesham and Bracewell, with no scores of note from Santner, de Grandhomme or Astle but they were generally in too soon, and being asked to do too much. With the ball, Trent Boult was the clear stand-out. Regardless of any help in the pitch, he was able to build pressure and create opportunities. Ferguson and Tim Southee both looked good, but didn’t produce great numbers. Henry looked amazing with the new ball in Wellington, after looking completely toothless in Hamilton. If New Zealand get a pitch with some life in England, he may well be a good option, but English pitches have not been particularly lively recently, so he may be a spectator in the World Cup. Bracewell and Neesham both struggled to build much pressure with the ball either. Part of that was the Indian batting, but they just didn’t do enough with the ball, or do it consistently enough to challenge good batsmen. The spinners were interesting to watch, playing against batsmen who tend to be quite good against spin. Santner generally had good control, but possibly bowled a bit too fast, and didn’t adapt quickly enough. Sodhi struggled against the Indian batsmen, who were prepared to take time to decide their shots against him. Generally, Sodhi is amazing if the batsmen are under scoreboard pressure, but if he has to build it himself, he struggles. He never got an opportunity to bowl with any pressure on the batsmen, and they were able to diffuse him easily. Todd Astle looked like the best of the three, until Hardik Pandya hit him for three consecutive sixes in his final over. Before this series, the World Cup squad was looking fairly predictable. It’s now looking like a bolter from outside the squad, such as Will Young to open the batting, or Hamish Bennett to open the bowling would not be out of the realms of probability. New Zealand have been taken to school by India. The big question will be if they have managed to learn the lessons, or if they’ve been dozing at the back of the class. Only time will tell.