New Delhi: It hasn’t been long since India were running high on confidence in Test cricket, specially with the long-attached tag of “home dominance”, firmly making back-to-back statements by winning the series at home. In 2024 itself, Team India started with a 4-1 victory over England, giving their new-found “Bazball” a major blow and beginning the new Test season with a 2-0 sweep of Bangladesh last month.
India had 10 Tests lined up in the build-up to the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025 final, for which the tussle is already on. They are done with five of those Tests, winning two and losing the last three on the trot. The drubbing was handed by New Zealand, a team which was running short of a permanent captain and moreover, landed in India after a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka in the away Test series.
For a team like India, having beaten the Bangla Tigers, New Zealand was going to be just another case of them prepping up for the big event – the Border Gavaskar Trophy, in which the team will be playing its remaining five Tests in Australia. Little did anyone know or was aware of what the Kiwis are plotting against Rohit Sharma & co., that they would be striking a blow so hard on their home confidence that it would make them question their tactics in the series that approaches down under.
New Zealand players celebrate after winning the third Test against India in Mumbai on Sunday. (Photo – PTI)
Opting to go for a rank-turning pitch like the second Test in Pune, the track played its part well for both sides, to say the least. It was expected that the pitch would deteriorate with each passing day and similar was the case at the Wankhede with batters getting decent help in the initial hours of the play. The spinners came into the act soon and the three-day affair can be judged by the fact that both Ajaz Patel and Ravindra Jadeja bagged a 10-wicket match haul (five-for in each of the innings).
India were confident of their spin duo Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin to get them a consolation win, after failing to deliver in the Pune Test but the duo was replaced by Patel and Glenn Phillips who clinched a six-fer and three wickets respectively during India’s run-chase. The low-scoring affair saw India chasing a 147 to sign off from the lost series on a bright note but a whitewash came out of the syllabus.
The toss didn’t go in India’s favour as the Kiwis opted to bat first and were bundled out on the opening day itself on 235. India turned to batting in the later half of the day and were given some early blows but resurrected themselves well on the back of Shubman Gill’s 90 and Rishabh Pant’s 60. They posted 263 as their first-innings score, taking the lead by 28 runs, and New Zealand in their second essay put up 174 to set India a below-par target.
At the end of Day 2, India were confident of chasing it down and were given a decent start as well but the Blackcaps soon chipped in with quick wickets, even sidelining the heroics of Pant – India’s only saviour with a 64. The half-century went in vain as not other Indian batter could stand the spin webs of Patel and Phillips, steering the game to the ultimate and historic result.
Mumbai magic! The first team to win a Test series 3-0 in India. Scorecard | https://t.co/NESIs2xCWN #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/NsfcNgww8q
— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) November 3, 2024
Why is NZ whitewash India’s lowest of lows in Tests?
Taking on a team that was already going through a scarcity of confidence after Sri Lanka humbled them 2-0 in the home Test series, India was expected to complete the usuals and catch the flight down under. New Zealand were missing the services of their star player Kane Williamson, who stayed back home due to trouble with his groin, and Mitchell Santner, who missed the third Test. Despite the fact, that India lost the series to a team that changed captain right before its beginning.
New Zealand players pose with the trophy after beating India 3-0 in the Test series in Mumbai on Sunday. (Photo – PTI)
Juggling from Southee to Santner talks a lot about NZ’s unpredictability and giving up the series 3-0 should call for introspection, specially on skipper Rohit Sharma and head coach Gautam Gambhir, whose coaching stint’s graph is going down. For the former India opener, the series must be a lesson of how difficult it is when it comes to actually executing on the ground what one speaks on the mic rather than just easily getting away after making a statement.
Losing the Pune Test was a home Test series loss for India after 12 long years over which Rohit said that it is acceptable to lose a series in the time span. India last lost a home Test series against England in 2012 by 2-1. But with the whitewash on Sunday, it happened for the first time for Team India since 2000 at home as South Africa beat the hosts 2-0, 24 years back.
What’s more dubious about India is that for the first time in their Test history, which goes back to 1933, the Men in Blue at home had been whitewashed in a series of three or more games, making it a long period of after 91 years.
