India’s glorious run ends as aging stars face reality check

A mighty proud home record of 18 successive Test series in a row was snapped in emphatic manner by Tom Latham’s New Zealand team in Pune, which saw the visitors back up their first Test win in India for 36 years with a second less than a week later. Then, in the final Test at the Wankhede Stadium, Latham’s upstarts beat India by 25 runs to inflict on India their first ever 3-0 defeat on home soil. 

The better team won, for sure, and it did so by out-batting, out-bowling and out-fielding India. This will, without a mistake, go down as New Zealand’s greatest achievement in Test cricket.

But how many of us saw it coming? 

Rohit Sharma, whose batting form has nosedived to alarming levels since the new home season started – he averages 13.0 from 10 innings – put up his hand after the Mumbai loss and said his own performances and leadership had been found wanting across these three Test matches. True, Rohit was caught short on several occasions, most glaringly when he chose to bat in Bengaluru where India were bowled out for 47, their lowest total at home. His dismissals are also indicative of an aging player torn between defence and aggression. 

Which is, perhaps, the biggest challenge facing this team as it heads off to Australia for five Test matches, of which they must win four to make it to next summer’s WTC final at Lord’s. Rohit is in a funk, as is Virat Kohli who averages 21.33 after five Tests this season. KL Rahul, the next most experienced batsman in the squad, has been benched for the more aggressive Sarfaraz Khan who has 171 runs from six innings, of which 150 came in one knock. 

Sarfaraz has probably played himself out of India’s starting 11 for the start of the Australia tour. Shubman Gill remains uncertain as to what approach works best at No 3, despite averaging 44 after four Tests in the new season. Yashasvi Jaiswal has got a reality check after the first England series earlier this year but was still good enough to make four fifties in eight innings. Rishabh Pant, making a return to Test cricket after 22 months, emerged as India’s best batsman with 422 runs at 46.88 including a century, a 99 and a pair of sixties in the Wankhede loss. 

The senior all-round pair or Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin are at that stage where we cannot expect consistency with the bat. Ashwin started the new season with arguably his best Test hundred, but heads to Australia averaging 20.62 in eight innings. Jadeja averaged 24.87 from these five home Tests with one fifty in eight innings. 

With the ball, Jadeja has struggled for rhythm in these five games with Bangladesh and New Zealand and his tally of 25 wickets included 10 in one match. Ashwin finished next best with 20 but was far from the genius we’ve become accustomed to. Jasprit Bumrah took 14 wickets at 19.14 apiece from four Tests and looks the likeliest to trouble the Australians. Mohammed Siraj’s Test career continues to head downwards, leaving Akash Deep as the likeliest to join Bumrah in Australia. 

This was not what Indian cricket fans expected when the season started. It was widely expected that India would win all five home Test matches and head to Australia with their path to the WTC final almost locked. Instead, the squad will start the series on November 22 in Perth with players short of form, several egos burned, and a system suddenly being questioned. 

There is very little time to turn around fortunes, that too against a team with Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon smarting from a decade of not getting their hands on the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. 

A word on India’s coach, Gautam Gambhir, whose term has seen a first ODI series loss to Sri Lanka in 27 years, the lowest Indian total in a home Test and now a historic first 0-3 sweep. Rahul Dravid had the same personnel six months ago, and that team beat England 4-1. Is it about the message being sent from the coach? 

India’s shot selection was glaring across these three defeats to New Zealand, unlike in the five Tests against England. Encouraging players to be be attacking is fine until a certain level, but to see Jaiswal attempt a reverse-sweep moments before stumps, an out-of-form Kohli bowled when trying to whip a full ball from Mitchell Santner, Sarfaraz swing a full toss to the lone fielder in the deep with a Test match to win and Ashwin get out not long after trying to reverse-sweep just makes this team look like a bunch not sure of what to do. 

Why has the trust in defence suddenly evaporated? Has Gambhir’s win-at-all-costs mantra taken a toll on this team? Why did India, after losing in Bengaluru, call for turning tracks in Pune and Mumbai when everyone knows that these types of pitches have backfired on several occasions because of how they have exposed India’s glaring batting frailties against spin. 

The answers, if not already laid bare, will be revealed in Australia.