NZ tour of India, Oct 16 - Nov 5

[GarlicJam]

NZ starting to march through the wickets now, after Jaiswal must have been getting them a little tense. Santner is definitely having the test of his career.

I suppose the India Media Collective are getting all ready to show the England Media Collective how to properly tear into the national team and management.

[Durhamfootman]

I'm guessing that India panicked after the first test went so horribly wrong for them. They have probably the best seam bowler in the world and they've prepared a pitch that has reduced him to a marginal figure, which seems mad to me. Now if their battery of spin bowlers had done what Pakistan's did to England then maybe it could have been justified (although imo that just cheapens the win), but Santner stepped up and out bowled the lot of them, so all that's happened is that India, in their panic, ended up looking like turnips and I imagine there will be quite some fall out after all this

[meninblue]

NZ should Ideally have posted 300 - 350+. Their first innings total of 259 was certainly not good but understandable as Ashwin is world class spinner, Jaddu is as good as a specialist spinner and he has vast test wickets experience although he does not has as much variety like a specialist spinner and Washington also bowls a lot of spin in domestic matches. Yes, opponents too had Santner who does not have as much variety but certainly has many overs under his belt in international cricket to make use of spin friendly wicket. Ajaaz a specialist and Glenn is a part timer though in last one and half year he is given decent workload of spin as compared to his past as wicket-keeper batsman. Still, the response of 156 was pathetic from India. This wasn't such a bad pitch and certainly they were not facing Murali and Warne and Kumble together. Even past greats would have faced criticism if they had scored 156 against Warne, Murali and Kumble all together. NZ total of 259 was also not good, but still India failed to breakeven the below par total which NZ posted. The overall quality of batting in test has dropped. It's just not about Indian batsmen of today who are unable to match the past players who played against better quality spinners, but it seems like a trend for all teams. This is just poor test cricket batting skills which are simply not upto the mark.

[meninblue]

I'm guessing that India panicked after the first test went so horribly wrong for them. They have probably the best seam bowler in the world and they've prepared a pitch that has reduced him to a marginal figure, which seems mad to me. Now if their battery of spin bowlers had done what Pakistan's did to England then maybe it could have been justified (although imo that just cheapens the win), but Santner stepped up and out bowled the lot of them, so all that's happened is that India, in their panic, ended up looking like turnips and I imagine there will be quite some fall out after all this

imo no major changes will happen. Virat would not be dropped because he is in a massive contract with sponsors who are important to BCCI. If he was playing for Australia and given his form over some years, he would not be even in the squad, let alone playing 11.


I am surprised they finally kept KL Rahul out on bench even after Sarfaraz's 100. He too will remain in next test squad until his sponsors milk out all returns from the amount they invested in him. Those who live by the sword will die by it. Same with BCCI and Indian test cricket. Virat and Rahul will be picked and India will waste time finding replacements as they have to carry on Virat and Rahul and some other superstars. Morevover, India won the T20i cup, the IPL retention lists are coming out and by the time IPL auctions will comes, most of Indian fans will forget what has happened in test cricket. Nobody will deep dive into Ranji cricket and pick replacements of non performing players like Virat or look to develop good cricketers for this format. IPL is the cash cow. The test cricket is not as important for BCCI.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Stunning win by NZ. Well done Kiwis. Love your comedy too.

Career peak for Mitch Santner.

Hard luck Washington Sundar.

[alfie]

Has been a remarkable week or so for NZ sport. Sailing , netball , football , women's cricket - and beating India at home in a Test Series pretty well capping the lot. All without Williamson for these first two Tests ... anyone crazy enough to place bets on it before the series will be laughing all the way to the bank !

Bit of a wake up call for India ahead of an Australian trip. Questions around Kohli , and possibly Jadeja on this form. They're probably missing Shami but I'd have expected better from their bowlers overall : for Washington Sundar to outshine his more experienced teammates was a considerable surprise to me.

Anyway good for cricket to see underdogs winning their share of matches recently (West Indies in Australia ; Sri Lanka in England , and now this) Certainly questions over the long term viability of the five day game but this evidence of a somewhat more competitive playing field might be a bit of a sign of hope.

[bigfluffylemon]

NZ's greatest overseas series win? Breaking au unbeaten home streak for India that's latest many years. Wow.

[GarlicJam]

NZ's greatest overseas series win? Breaking au unbeaten home streak for India that's latest many years. Wow.

Besides the mentioned golden run in sports for the Kiwis (geez, I'm glad we beat them in the Rugby League, both genders, yesterday), this has also been enjoyed by all non-India supporters around the world - with the Kiwis being the understated "good blokes" of world cricket.

It's probably a good time for the NZ PM to think about an early election.

[sussexpob]

Considering the raft of T20 retirements recently for India, is this a case of everyone getting past it all at once?

Jadeja, Ashwin, Kohli, Sharma are all 35 or over. Not sure how Rahul still gets in the team..... India getting to the rip it up and burn it stage

[GarlicJam]

as are Australia

heading for another mass extinction period - maybe worse than the two that have happened in my lifetime. The longevity of the bowling lineup has been good, but it is probably going to be really bad once they all go within a couple of years.

[meninblue]

Don't know how the team will cope up with the Australia series.

[GarlicJam]

that's the thought prior to both of the previous two India tours of Aus, MiB, and didn't India do well? Especially the last tour - that is almost on a par with NZ's current tour of India, imo.

At least India are having test matches prior to the BG series. Nothing for Aus since last summer.

[alfie]

Rather looking forward to this Australia/India series with additional interest because it looks harder than ever to predict what will happen.

India will be smarting from the home loss to NZ ; and they appear to have a few senior players either going through a bad patch or in terminal decline... this series might make some of that clearer. Rohit apparently going to miss part of the tour , Shami injured and not coming : all suggests they'll be scratching to keep their excellent recent record here going.

BUT : we probably assumed they were dead in the water last time after 36 all out and Kohli off home . Plus their main bowlers were falling like flies before the last of the four matches... yet they prevailed. Not going to write them off in advance.

As for Australia , also a few questions to be answered. Opening batting after the short lived and always ill suited Smith experiment : will it be someone new and hopeful or one previously tried with minimal success ? Khawaja surely can't go on for ever either. No Green so either Marsh has to bowl more than he wants or an all rounder has to be shoe-horned into the mix. Or a lot of reliance on the limited part time stuff of Smith/Labuschagne and Head. The pace men all look good to go at the start of the series ; but they aren't getting any younger and the odds are replacements might be needed at some point. Replacements who haven't had a lot of Test experience for the very good reason that the usual trio have stood up so well. All might be fine : or could get a bit messy.

We will find out over the next few months.

[meninblue]

that's the thought prior to both of the previous two India tours of Aus, MiB, and didn't India do well? Especially the last tour - that is almost on a par with NZ's current tour of India, imo.

At least India are having test matches prior to the BG series. Nothing for Aus since last summer.

In 2018, India won the 4 match test series by 2-1, the maiden test series win by India in Australia. In some matches Indian openers managed to play a decent number of overs and thereby take the shine off the ball. Chet, Rishabh and Virat had done well. Chet I think posted some record for playing the most umber of balls against Australia in Australia series by and Indian batsmen. So when the openers take the shine off the ball and then the number 3 further bats for so long that he makes the ball soft for other batsmen, a decent innings total gets posted by the whole team. Then India had a pace attack of Jasprit, Shami and Ishant. Australian batsmen were not allowed to score big runs. The batting unit and the bowling unit both played their part in the historic win.

In 2021, India won the 4 match test series by 2-1.The pathetic batting by Indian team in which lowest score of 36 happened in the pink ball test. Virat returned to India for paternity leave. Ajinkya Rahane captained 2nd test onwards and he changed the pathetic start to lead team India to a marvellous series victory. The win at Gabba which was fortress of Australia was finally conquered by their opponents. The spectacular chase at Gabba where Shubman, Rishabh and Washington Sundar played attacking cricket. It was a debut series for Shubman Gill and he did well. Yet again Shubman and Chet played lot of balls and helped take the shine off the ball as well as made it soft for other batsmen. It ranks amongst top wins against Australia by India. The other win was at Kolkata, after being made to follow-on, the match in which there was a epic partnership between VVS and Rahul against the feared bowling attack of Shane Warne, Glenn M, Jason G and Michael K.

Now if you see Indian team has bought Washington Sundar back ahead of playing Kuldeep Yadav against NZ. India gambled in NZ series playing all-rounder Washington Sundar over specialist Kuldeep who for obvious reasons is better bowler than all-rounder Washington. Washington has played ongoing Ranji and he they are making him more match fit for Australia series. Also, Ash and Jaddu are there as spinners, so they ahve not included Kuldepp in the test squad for Australia. So Washington was played against NZ in recent test series. Washington played key knocks in lower middle order, one being the wonderful partnership with Shardul after a top order collapse. Clearly he had played two clutch knocks in that series and his runs coming under pressure against the best at the home of the best team is what helped his comeback after 3 years of test cricket which was also a period he had few injuries. With the current form of Indian batting posting second all time lowest score of 46 against NZ at Bengaluru the batting has reached all time low at home. I think that explains the selection of Washington over Kuldeep and in my opinion, is a strategic ploy Indian think tank has opted for in preparation for Australia series.

Virat has been below average in past 2 to 3 years in test cricket and it is only his brand value which is keeping him in test team. Like in my recent post, i repeat, he would have been dropped by Australia if his performance was such. Rahul has flopped but again he remains in team maybe due to some strong influence within the board / selection panel. Rohit has the ability to play bounce well, but what if Mitchell Starc swings the ball by even 2 cms. Gone, bowled / LBW / edged. If swing is not there then the rabbit turns into lion. India has wasted one spot on him for long. Yashasvi showed with a double hundred against England in India that he can stay long at the crease, but he needs to cut his aggressive shots at start of the innings. This is a series where India will miss Chet. Shami is injured. Siraj is not as good as Shami. Prasidh Krishan is injury prone and he isn't that good. The batting form is awful and the bowling attack is weak.

Australia do not need the tag of number 1 test team which they have currently to make their opponents be overconfident. Atleast, certainly over confidence is not what Team India will carry before this series. They will be having confidence of a mountaineer at base camp trying to climb Mount Everest. They know they can on base of past series but they also know of the strong hurdles that Australian test team will put forth.

[GarlicJam]

Watching this third test, and it looks to be very, very uncomfortable conditions to be playing cricket. Everyone looks to be doing it hard, including most of the India players out in the field.

As an indication, the umpire's shirt is sodden and just clinging to his torso.

It is living up to the name of the format of cricket being played.