Seniors past their prime, juniors undercooked, India at crossroads | Cricket News

Washington Sundar stood crestfallen at the crease, his head sunk to the ground. His stumps lay shattered like the hopes of thousands in the stands. In the shocked silence of Wankhede, all you could hear were the hysteric screams of Tom Latham’s men, defending a total of 147 25 runs, celebrating a whitewash over India, the first time a side had won all three Tests against India at the home. The fortress was breached a week ago, the first team in 12 years and 18 series to the feat. Here New Zealand scavenged the last vestiges of an era of India’s infallible domination at home.
In the forensic analysis of India’s defeat, the quality, bravado and resourcefulness of the Latham’s men should not be forgotten. The turners didn’t daunt them, the reputation didn’t faze them. They not only stared back at the mountain but also conquered it. As pitiable as India were in this series, the Kiwis were resolved and determined, grooved and equipped.
The end was swift. India lost the last three wickets in the space of four balls. The knockout blows had been landed much earlier. The most stinging came fifteen minutes into the second session, the moment that decided the match. One that would be dissected threadbare in the days and weeks to come.
Pant was India’s biggest — and perhaps the only — shard of hope to pull off a victory. He has breezed to 64 off 56 balls, crunching a couple of boundaries to complete his half century, when he stepped out to Ajaz Patel. He shortened the length, he decided to defend, bat and pad close to each. The ball ballooned in the air, which Tom Blundell collected. The on-field umpire disapproved the appeals but the decision was overturned upon review. Whether the spike on snicko-meter was a feathery edge or the bat hitting the pad could be debated. Pant was certain he did not and walked away with an unusual rage of fit. “Cheaters, cheaters…” ringed in the stadium. Now the whole world was not only crumbling in front of them, but conspiring too.
How it came to this is a more poignant narrative, one that provokes hurt and tears on how low India’s batting had plummeted in this series. Silence wrapped the semi-packed arena when Rohit Sharma skewed Matthew Henry to Glenn Phillips at midwicket. The score was just 13 and intrigue made its first appearance of the day. The dismissal has been characteric of Rohit’s travails this series, Often, he had looked to don the counter-attacker’s role, like in white-ball cricket, and invited his own end. In the first over, he blazed down the track and slapped Henry for a four; in the next over, he reverse swept Ajaz Patel for another four. The last ball of the third over, he tried to pull a short of length ball that hurried into him with the slippery pace of Henry and brought self-inflicted doom. This has been a woeful series for him, not so much for the string of low scores (91 runs in six innings), but for the way he has been getting out. Twice when he was looking to pull, once when charging out to a seamer on a green-top and repeating the same against a spinner on a turner. As disarming as he could be in owning failures, a serious rethink on his approach is indispensable.
How rueful it turned out to be for his country. Six balls later, Shubman Gill, who seemed to have conquered his spin demons, fatally left a ball that didn’t turn, a natural variation off Patel, whose love story with the Wankhede continued. Gill’s indiscretion was appalling — as he left the ball on length on a surface the ball had dubiously behaved. As though the surface was not arduous enough to bat, gift-wrapping wickets was criminal. During his fluent 90 in the first innings, he batted without preconceptions, without notions. Not here though.
Kohli’s best days behind him
The sorry figure of 16/2 flared into 18/3 when Virat Kohli’s forward thrust found the edge of his bat and flew to the slips, where Daryll Mitchell grabbed a low catch. It ended another harrowing series for Kohli, and with the hard truth that perhaps his best days are past him. This series, he has been a shadow of a shadow, a redoubtable proof that he is a diminished force. Beneath the paining shoulders could be a tired mind too. He has lost the unflinching drive that made him.
now, collapses of damningly farcical nature, even at home, are such a constant that it ceases to shock the audience. Ten balls later, India slipped further into the gorge, with the home-boys, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan, touted the future of Indian batting, floundering. More than the wickedness of the surface, it was pressure that broke them. Yashasvi defended with the pad in front of the bat, making Glenn Phillips resemble peak Saqlain Mushtaq. He was unsure which way the ball would turn. It didn’t and he was struck plumb.
Enter Sarfaraz. His first home Test would haunt him for a while. His first shift lasted four balls. His second lasted two fewer, though he made a run before sweeping himself to destruction. He is a proficient sweeper in domestic cricket, but on a raging turner with bounce it was plain foolish. Even more so if you are premeditating. Like Gill, he was another victim of an inflexible mindset. To perish to a full toss on this surface was frightful.
Ravindra Jadeja, reprieved first ball, arrested the slide in the company of Pant. He resed for 21 balls, performing the sidekick role to the dynamic Pant. Run run, they nearly halved the target before the bat-pad gobbled him up. But as long as Pant batted, hope lingered. He fell, and so too his team.