Image Credit- Getty
Under overcast skies in Bengaluru, skittled for 46 by fast bowlers in seaming conditions. Skittled for 156 by spin on a dry, winding pitch in Pune with clear sky.
India is in danger of losing their first Test series at home since they were defeated by Alastair Cook’s England in December 2012, following two collapses under very different circumstances. A legendary era seems to be coming to an end.
It seems like an overreaction to their collapse in Bengaluru, even though assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate rejected ideas that it was a “desperate measure” to prepare a pitch that would help spinners create uncertainty simply by landing the ball on a good length and bring in the extra offie from outside the squad to exploit it better.
Once more, when one ball turns and another doesn’t, despite being pitched in the same location, batting turns into a lottery. India wanted to remove New Zealand’s quicks from the game and then rely on their hitters to handle the spinners. Shortly after he saw one rip past his outside edge, Shubman Gill fell lbw to a straight ball. A short ball that shot low bowled Rishabh Pant.
In retrospect, India would question whether they might have done more to divert Phillips and Santner from their lines and lengths. Many batters use the sweep shot to do this, particularly those travelling to the subcontinent. The same was true in New Zealand. Devon Conway was discouraged from playing that shot on the first day due to a short third and a square point led, but he still went for it and won.
By the time they batted, it was hard to predict what the ball would do, which gave India even more motivation to try to annoy the bowlers. Would it rotate? Would it proceed directly? Would it remain low? They attempted to use a vertical bat to respond to these queries. They have been successful at playing spin because of this. They only made 17 trips to the sweep, and they lost Virat Kohli by 24 runs. Santner and company were able to continue hitting the dry, good-length places because they were increasingly just caught in the crease.
They had made a deliberate attempt to take some measured chances and attack India’s spinners, Santner stated as he was executing some sweeps during New Zealand’s training session on the eve of the Test.
There will be a great deal of reflection on their batsmanship and ball-related issues after Friday’s collapse, which was particularly painful since New Zealand managed to score and increase their lead to 301. However, a team’s life cycle includes these occurrences.
“Every few years there comes a time when key players are not in their prime,” Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPNcricinfo’s Match Day. “And you can clearly say Rohit Sharma is not in his prime right now so is Virat Kohli. That happened in 2011, when India suffered defeats in England 4-0 and Australia 4-0. There you had many senior players who were on the wane, and they didn’t quite deliver and India suffered. But here there’s been a nice transition. There’s Gill, there’s [Yashasvi] Jaiswal, there’s Sarfaraz [Khan], there’s Rishabh Pant. It’s been a nice transition.
“But I guess somewhere in a situation like this, when New Zealand were throwing some really difficult questions at India, experienced players have to be at the forefront and they haven’t quite contributed. Hardly any contributions from Rohit Sharma in the first innings. From Virat Kohli as well and that is somewhere coming into play.”
At home, India was unbeatable from 2012 until 2024. They continued to outlast their opponents in each series, as if they were impervious to the way good things should operate. The nation’s crowds had become accustomed to this. As the second wicket fell, the roughly 20,000 spectators in Pune were yelling uncontrollably. For the opponents, it wasn’t exactly a success. It was their hero’s introduction. However, this script was different from the others, and there is now a good risk that a proud and unrivalled streak may end in the next two days, or perhaps even less.