India whitewashed by New Zealand – Cricket needs the aura of invincibility and not home track bullies

While New Zealand started the series after being gunned down by the mighty Australians, India came to this series with their spirits high. Since the defeat against England away from home, Virat Kohli's landed on New Zealand soil with the aura of invincibility – strings of series victories came down under, in the Caribbean and on home soil. Undoubtedly, the number one Test side in the world were the favourites to conquer New Zealand. But in the end, it was another whitewash for the Indian team since the 4-0 drubbing against Australia in 2011-12 and under Virat’s captaincy, this has happened for the first time.

After the heavy defeat at Basin Reserve, Christchurch offered nothing new for the Indians. Their batting display remained dismal and on a greenish deck, their lack of ability to resist was surprising. None of the batsmen could step up and fight back like a Rahul Dravid or VVS Laxman when Sachin Tendulkar fell down quickly.

As soon as Kohli was tamed – India melted like the 90s whenever they lost Tendulkar!

The average runs per wicket of Indian batters had been 18.5 in this series. India’s highest score in 4 innings had been 242. Kohli’s batting average had been 9.50 throughout this series.  The highest score by an Indian in this series had been 58 scored by Mayank Agarwal.

New Zealand's eighth to tenth-wicket partnerships in this series had been 34.61.

According to ESPNcricinfo, “The six partnerships for their last three wickets yielded 205 runs from two innings, with two fifty-plus stands. In both their first innings of the Tests, the lower order produced invaluable runs. In the second Test, the Kyle Jamieson-Neil Wagner stand of 51 for the eighth wicket kept the first-innings deficit to just seven runs. In the first Test, Jamieson and Colin de Grandhomme added 71 runs for the eighth wicket and then Jamieson and Trent Boult put on 38 runs for the final wicket to take the lead to 183. In contrast, India's tail-enders scored just 124 in four innings at an average of 10.33”.

The last time India's bowlers conceded a higher average to the opposition's last three wickets in a series was in the 2014-15 period in the successive series in England (average 42.92) and Australia (43.50).

You don’t expect the number 1 Test side to be such, do you?

The number one Test team should be conquerer of the world like Clive Lloyd’s West Indies and Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting’s Australia.

What we just see these days are nothing but home track bullies.

The state of New Zealand would be similar when they would tour India – rank-turners would devour them in no time.

But cricket really needs the flavour of aura of invincibility. Those dominating sides of West Indies and Australia brought a certain charm to the game –  the charm of witnessing each and every bit of greatness, which comes once in a generation. Cricket needs a Lloyd, Richards, Ponting, Marshall, Warne, Waugh, Greenidge, Gilchrist, McGrath, Holding and co to make this generation realize about the warriors who possessed the qualities of Alexander the Great!

Note: This article has been posted at Cricketsoccer as CSdesk on 03/03/20 India whitewashed by New Zealand – Cricket needs the aura of invincibility and not home track bullies 

Thank You

Faisal Caesar