Endurance Test
India had won 18 consecutive home series
between 2013 and 2024. That run ended against New Zealand; the next generation has inherited a team whose aura of invincibility has been badly diminishedIf you ask the fairweather cricket fan what Gautam Gambhir, the batsman, will be remembered for, the answer will always be unanimous—his match-winning, top-scoring knocks in not one but two World Cup finals that India ended up winning, largely due to his solo effort. In 2007, he scored 75 against Pakistan in the first-ever T20 World Cup final in Johannesburg (the next best score from the Indian ranks was Rohit Sharma’s 30), and four years later, had ice in his veins during his essay of 97 runs while chasing down Sri Lanka’s target in the ODI World Cup final in Mumbai.
Wanderers and Wankhede, etched in the legacy of the current head coach of the Indian team forever.
But pose the same question to an ardent follower of the game, one who places Test cricket above all else, and the answer will be wholly different. This answer, too, however, still remains unanimous—the 137 he scored in the most trying of conditions and situations in Napier, New Zealand, back in 2009. Having won the first Test of that tour in Hamilton, MS Dhoni’s India arrived in Napier with a lead to defend. But things went south quickly when the Test started: captain Dhoni sat out of the game, and within a couple of days in extreme pace conditions, India were forced to follow-on.
This is when opener Gambhir sculpted his pièce de résistance, quite literally, for resist he did. For a little less than 11 excruciating hours, across two days, Gambhir batted with the kind of intent seldom seen in Indian cricket. Back firmly to the wall, he blocked and left and pinched the odd single, finding the boundary ropes just 18 times in 436 balls. Thanks to him (and VVS Laxman in such situations, always), India drew a game they should have lost and ended up winning the series by the end of the third Test in Wellington.
It is an incredible coincidence, then, that Gambhir the coach, rather auspiciously finds himself back in New Zealand, needing to summon the same stubbornness, patience and powers of resistance that Gambhir the batter displayed 17 years ago within these very same shores. Only this time, the follow-on is metaphorical, the deficit is in the World Test Championship standings and the task is to keep India’s bleakest of hopes of a third appearance in the final alive. If he does so, which is to mastermind a miraculous return from the ranking doldrums, this tour will surely be etched into his coaching legacy as his finest. Quite like Gambhir the cricketer, the coach may well be remembered for bigger trophies—the T20 World Cup, the Champions Trophy. But the purist will hail New Zealand as his defining hour.
Mostly because the numbers, as they stand, make for uncomfortable reading. Very uncomfortable. India have played 11 Tests in the 2025-27 WTC cycle, winning five, losing four and drawing two. Their points percentage of 51.52 leaves them fifth, behind Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Bangladesh. Australia, with nine wins from 12 matches, are on 75 per cent, while New Zealand have lost only once in six Tests and sit on 72.22. India, by contrast, have already exhausted much of their margin for error. They have seven Tests left in the cycle: two in New Zealand and five at home against Australia. With the final scheduled for June 2027, the task is now no longer simply to accumulate points but to win enough of the remaining matches to stay in the race.
The irony is that India had entered the previous cycle in a position of considerable strength. They had reached the first two WTC finals, in 2021 and 2023 (losing to the Kiwis and the Aussies, respectively) and were well placed to make it three in a row. Then Tom Latham’s New Zealand arrived in India.
In October 2024, the unassuming Kiwis didn’t just beat India on home soil, they won all three Tests. Whitewashed. It was India’s first Test series loss on home soil in over a decade, having last lost a series in 2012, to Alastair Cook’s England. Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai became the sites of a collapse that few had anticipated. The defeat did not, by itself, mathematically eliminate India from the final, but it dramatically complicated their qualification equation. A 3-1 defeat in Australia subsequently landed the knock-out jab, wholly finishing the job.
The consequences extended beyond one missed final. The Mumbai Test against New Zealand proved to be the last home Test for Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin—India’s captain, best bat and top bowler, respectively. By the time Kohli and Rohit announced their Test retirements post the Australia tour (Ashwin retired during the series), both in May 2025, India had lost three players who had helped define an era, along with the assurance that came from having them in the dressing room. India had won 18 consecutive home series between 2013 and 2024. That run ended against New Zealand; the next generation has inherited a team whose aura of invincibility has been badly diminished.
Coach Gambhir has had to manage this transition while remaining accountable for results. His record in white-ball cricket is formidable, with India winning the Champions Trophy last year, the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup this year during his tenure. Test cricket has been a different proposition. After the New Zealand whitewash and the defeat in Australia, India drew a five-Test series in England 2-2, swept the West Indies at home and then lost 2-0 to South Africa in November 2025. The latter defeat was particularly damaging: India lost the opening Test at Eden Gardens by 30 runs after collapsing in a modest fourth-innings chase, then suffered their heaviest defeat by runs in Test cricket in Guwahati.
Gambhir has defended the decisions made by his management, arguing that the team must take responsibility rather than blame conditions. He also believes the transition is nearing its end. “I think we are getting there, that now we are getting into that settled batting lineup,” he said in September, pointing to the emergence of Dhruv Jurel and Devdutt Padikkal. He has also insisted that India possess the bowling resources to take 20 wickets in any conditions, provided the batters give them enough runs to defend.India had won 18 consecutive home series
between 2013 and 2024. That run ended against New Zealand; the next generation has inherited a team whose aura of invincibility has been badly diminished
There is a reasonable argument for patience. Captain Shubman Gill has taken over the Test captaincy at 26, with Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jurel, Padikkal and Sai Sudharsan among the players being asked to establish themselves in a side that has lost hundreds of Tests’ worth of experience. Gill remains India’s leading run-scorer in the current WTC cycle, with 1,024 runs—most of these arriving in an incredible tour of England last year—while Mohammed Siraj led their wicket-taking charts with 43. Those are foundations on which to build, but they do not yet amount to a settled team. India’s young batting order has repeatedly struggled to convert promising positions into match-winning totals, while the spin bowling that once made home conditions such a formidable advantage has not consistently delivered the same control.
Gambhir’s own explanation is that the side is still learning. “The actual transition happened after England. It’s been only nine Test matches,” he said, pointing to the team’s performances in England and against the West Indies. He acknowledged that consistency would be harder to achieve with so many inexperienced players, but rejected the idea that this should become an excuse. Pay attention to this distinction, for it matters most. A rebuilding team can afford to lose while discovering its identity; a WTC campaign cannot indefinitely accommodate the same process. The championship operates on a fixed timetable, and India’s next two Tests are away to the very team that exposed their vulnerabilities at home.
New Zealand, meanwhile, arrive with a useful combination of recent history and present form. They have already won a series in England in this cycle, recovering from an opening defeat to win the next two Tests. For India, the conditions in Wellington and Christchurch will test both their batting technique and the depth of their pace attack. Jasprit Bumrah’s return offers a major boost, but the greater question is whether the batters can provide him, his new-ball partner Siraj and the supporting bowlers with totals that make taking 20 wickets a realistic proposition. Gambhir, however, has made it clear that he wants a stable batting order rather than constant changes tailored to individual conditions. That stability is still being earned.
India’s route to the final remains open, but it has become considerably narrower. They must first negotiate New Zealand away before returning home for five Tests against Australia early next year, a series that will carry enormous weight in the final reckoning. The challenge is not merely to find a combination that wins the next match. It is to assemble a side capable of sustaining performance across conditions, without the senior figures who once supplied its runs, wickets and authority. The last time India played New Zealand, they were still expected to make a third successive WTC final. The next meeting will reveal how far the team has travelled since that expectation collapsed.
Gambhir knows what it takes to bat like a cornered tiger in New Zealand. Could he now do it without a willow in hand?