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India Suffer 1st Defeat in World Test Championship (5 Talking Points)

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5 Talking Points As India suffer first defeat in Test Championship
NZ Team Image credit: BCCI

The first defeat in the ICC World Test Championship for India looked inevitable on Day-3, and then Southee-Boult pair took just one more session to wrap up things as India swallowed some pride for the first time in this ICC World Test Championship 2019-2021. Let’s look back at the 5 talking points from the match.

Opening riddle:

When was the last time India put up a 50-run opening stand away from home? Well, it was in Adelaide in 2018. So India are struggling with this issue for a while now. And the new openers Prithvi Shaw & Mayank Agarwal failed to offer any respite in this area.

With Prithvi’s technique of staying leg side of the ball, it was evident that he would struggle against the moving ball. So his failure in the morning session of the day one didn’t surprise many.

But in the 2nd innings when pitch flattened out a bit, when he could have made up for his first-innings failure, he totally threw it away.

On the other side, even Mayank Agarwal didn’t look very technically sound either, but the thing that separated him from Prithvi Shaw was his temperament.

He resisted his temptation to play expansive drives early on his innings and was happy to play a waiting game. While he can count himself a bit unlucky in the 2nd innings, he wouldn’t want to look back at his first-innings dismissal, when he imperfectly pulled that delivery which took the upper edge of the bat, landing into the hands of the fielder.

Now, the two-match Test series can make things a bit tricky for India. You don’t want to drop a player after just one game but Shubman Gill’s big scores in A tour earlier will tempt team management to make a desperate change.

Kohli’s lean patch:

If his lack of runs wasn’t a concern, the mode of dismissals in both innings gave nightmares to his fans. His first-innings dismissal turned the clock back to the 2014 England tour. Also the way Boult & co. worked him out in the 2nd innings is a cause of some concern.

Trent Boult said about Virat Kohli, “I think he likes to feel bat on the ball, like a couple of their guys. For me personally using the wicket and shorter balls was a good plan to control his run rate. It is nice to draw the error out of him but I think the way that Kyle (Jamieson) has been bowling the whole match, especially that spell he bowled to him and not letting him getaway to a racing start was a big part of it.”

So Kiwis had two plans for him. Either test his patience with outside offline deliveries or go Wagner-way to give a short ball barrage. Kohli overcame many challenges over his career. It would be interesting to see how he counters this one.

No seam bowling all-rounder:

In the absence of Hardik Pandya, India is seriously missing a big link in their XI. The role which Colin de Grandhomme is playing for New Zealand. With the 4-man bowling attack, by the time India reached the 80-over mark, the bowlers looked as if they had run out of gas.

Then few extra runs from the New Zealand tailenders took their frustration to another level. Struggle with the tailenders is not new for Team India.

On the 3rd day morning, New Zealand had a lead of just 60 runs with 3 wickets left and then Colin de Grandhomme and Kyle Jamieson’s partnership took the game away from India’s reach. In the end, Trent Boult’s cameo added insult to the injury.

Ishant Sharma ending up as the most successful Indian bowler in the Test when he wasn’t even sure of making it into the final XI, is quite an eye-opening fact.  Bumrah struggled to find the right length, Shami looked nowhere at his best either.

Will all this make India gamble with an extra bowling option for the Christchurch Test?

Toss factor:

“It was probably the toss that turned out to be very important,” Kohli said in the press conference.

Was it such a huge factor? Toss does give you some favor in any condition. You don’t want to bat first in New Zealand or bat 4th in Asia.

But it wasn’t really a 165-all out pitch on the first morning even after losing the toss. That’s where India lost the match I feel.

The key to success in New Zealand is that your lower middle order should squeeze some runs to keep you in the contest. You’ll get some unplayable stuff like Cheteshwar Pujara got against Kyle Jamieson but throwing it away like Mayank Agarwal or offering them a simple run out is something no team would not want to repeat in Christchurch.

Clarity in plans of Kiwi pacers:

Mind you New Zealand missed the services of their pace bowlers Neil Wagner and Lockie Furguson still they dominated the World No.1 team like anything.

The key of their success was clarity in their plans. They extracted more swing and seam movement even with the old ball. When the conditions were bit flattened out in the 2nd innings, they didn’t shy away to use the short ball barrage.

India had to earn every single run. India’s run rate in the match was 2.4 as opposed to New Zealand’s 3.5 which tells you how much disciplined Kiwi pacers were.

At times Indian batsmen felt like being bogged down. Pujara’s dismissal in the 2nd innings where he simply left the Trent Boult delivery which went on to hit the stumps, was the best example of getting bogged down.

This lack of intent let Kiwis dictate the terms which paid the price eventually.

The second and final Test of the Test series will begin in Christchurch on February 29, 2020. Will India manage to turn the tide which they are fighting against since the start of the ODI series in New Zealand? Will they be able to end this tour on a high note? We will get the answers to all these and many other questions next week. Thanks for reading the 5 talking points from the match.

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