After the Kiwi Whitewash

KANPUR, BY ROAD or rail, is less than 1,300 kilometres away from Mumbai. But for India’s Test side, and especial­ly captain Rohit Sharma, that distance must feel like the proverbial million miles. For, when India had defeated Bangladesh at the Green Park Stadium as recently on the first day of October to win their 18th Test series on the bounce on home soil, everything was right with Indian cricket.

Not only had the country’s cricketing machinery success fully stretched their unbeaten dominance in the red-ball game on home soil to a dozen years, they had done so in resounding and breathtaking fashion. In under two days of play (with the rest of it cancelled due to rain), Sharma’s India had employed the most aggressive style of cricket to chase a result, in turn, breaking records for the fastest team 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 in the history of Test cricket. Sharma, winner of the T20 World Cup earlier in the year, had not only kept India on top of the standings (by a distance) for the ongoing cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC) but had all but put them in the Lord’s final, to be played next year. And all was well with this world, their world, that the rest of us simply inhabit.

Exactly a month later, on November 1 (which too must feel like the slow, dreadful passing of an era, if not an age for the Indian cricketers), that perfectly constructed world had come crumbling down at the Wankhede stadium, in the most spectacular man­ner no less. For, not only had India’s Test match-winning streak at home ended, it had ended 0-3 in a three-match series, making New Zealand the first-ever team in the long history of the game to whitewash India in India. The very same New Zealand that had recently been convincingly beaten by a rebuilding Sri Lanka.

So far removed was the thought of their triumph in the beginning that when the first day of the series in Bengaluru was washed out, former India captain Anil Kumble, then seated in the broadcaster’s studio, predicted a 3-0 series win to India. Which was a fair prediction for a country that had last won a Test match in India back in 1988. This is not to say that Tom Latham’s history-creating unit were given the victory on a platter—even though the numbers may indicate that it was such—and one can take nothing away from them. The Kiwis had to outthink the hosts every step of the way in alien conditions.

Still, the embarrassing nature of the scoreline and the subse­quent series loss have put India’s hopes of making the WTC final in doubt, if not making their task of getting to a third straight ICC final across formats all but impos­sible, given that Sharma’s men play their final set of Tests in this WTC cycle in and against Australia, which begins a fort­night from now. And to get to the WTC final on their own steam, India will have to win four of those five matches—a hard ask for anyone, including for a side that has won their last two tours of that land.

ALL OF THIS GIVES Sharma, a proud man otherwise, a terribly short period of time to lick his wounds and make things right, for himself as well as a vast ecosystem made up of millions of fans who soar and crash by the Indian team’s performances. Most, if not all of those millions, now have a single question, or a variation of this, on their lips: “How did it come to this?” Really, 0-3, how? Depending on where one seeks information, internet or television, everything from Sharma and Virat Kohli’s age to the young generation’s hard hands and ensu­ing inability to play spin has been blamed. As have India’s fond­ness for turning tracks (which caused a favourable home advan­tage for well over a decade) and the team’s overall commitment towards Test cricket, despite being a most professional set-up that just won a World Cup. Indian cricket fans, and hence those who cater to them, really do err on the side of outrage.

So, what was it then? While there is no clear-cut answer, it could well be the most obvious one: in a format where the team lying in wait for the narrowest of upswings is often rewarded, New Zealand were simply more patient and less hurried about making things happen. They, however, did not miss golden op­portunities that came their way, like when Sharma misread the Bengaluru pitch that lay under a blanket of rain clouds. Despite the overcast conditions, the wicket was devoid of any grass, so Sharma felt it could still aid batting and chose to bat first. And shortly after, India were bowled out for 46, their lowest innings score at home in Test cricket.

Sharma was quick to take the blame for his call at the press conference later that day, which few of his predecessors ever had the courage to do. Courage is also a befitting description of India’s answer in the second innings, well after the Kiwis had posted 402, when, during a brilliant stand between Sarfaraz Khan and Rishabh Pant, India found themselves on 433/4—essentially 77 runs ahead with two well-set batsmen and a few more special­ists and all-rounders to follow, which meant India, at that point, could well have been ahead of the game. Then Pant got out on 99, followed by Khan on 150 and India folded with a lead of just over 100, which was gobbled up by the visitors.

When the series moved to Pune, a rank turner was set as a trap for New Zealand. But when Latham won the toss and chose to bat first, the ploy backfired, despite left-arm spinner Washington Sundar’s 7-wicket haul in the first innings. On such an abra­sive pitch, however, even New Zealand’s left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner, who had never claimed a 5-for in his Test career, took seven wickets. And by the time the fourth innings came by, the wicket was so worn that the target of 359 runs was always going to be a stretch too far, even if opener Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 77 made short work of the first 100 runs of the chase. But Jaiswal fell to Santner, who ended up taking another six wickets in the second innings and that was that. The series was lost.

But while the Mumbai Test, on paper, was only a consolation match for the Indians, a win would have helped ease their burdens of qualifying for the WTC final. On another turning track, which saw only four of the 40 wickets fall to the fast bowlers, India lost their edge in what could be best described as 11 minutes of madness on the first day. With New Zealand bowled out for 235, thanks to a Ravindra Jadeja 5-for, the match now hinged on India’s ability to gain a large first innings lead, which they were well set for as the day neared stumps, before the well-set Jaiswal fell. India chose to go in with a nightwatchman in Mohammed Siraj, who got out for a golden duck (he cost the side a review as well). So, in came Kohli and out he went seconds later, run out to a direct hit.

But yet another Jadeja 5-for in the second innings stalled the Kiwis in their tracks, giving India an imminently chaseable target of 146 runs. Sharma tried to approach the chase like his team had in Kanpur, going hard at the ball and getting away with a miscued pull once. But not twice. The only batsman to score runs while playing in a similar vein was Pant, with 64. The next high­est score in the scorecard was extras, with 12. India had lost by 25 runs to only the sound of giggling Kiwis, foremost among them Ajaz Patel, who had taken 11 wickets in the city of his birth. The heroics of Kanpur seemed very far away now, but the hopes of getting to Lord’s even more so.

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