India’s epochal 0-3 home series whitewash at the hands of New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday has called for stern reactions from former players.
Rohit Sharma’s team became the first Indian Test side to be clean-swept in a home series comprising at least three games while also tumbling down from the top spot of the World Test Championship standings. India are tasked with a hefty challenge of winning at least four of their remaining five games in the Border Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia to stand a chance to make a third successive WTC final appearance.
The most shocking pattern of the series has been the Indian batters’ capitulation against spin, with left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel headlining the Mumbai Test with an 11-wicket haul. India failed to chase down 147 on their backyard, making it the lowest target successfully defended against them at home.
Terrible display
Reacting to India’s ignominy, former India opener Sehwag lashed out at the poor batting display against spin. 37 of the 57 wickets India lost to the Kiwi bowlers were against the spinners, led by Patel (15) and Mitchell Santner (13).
“While as supporters it’s imperative to support the team but this has been a terrible performance from our team. The skill to play spin certainly needs an upgrade and certain experimentations are good for the shorter format but in Test cricket doing some needless experimentations just for the sake of it was indeed poor,” Sehwag wrote on Instagram.
“Congratulations to Tom Latham and his @blackcapsnz boys on doing what is a dream for every visiting team and no other could conquer in this way,” he added.
Had a solid conversation with @iamyusufpathan bhai yesterday. He made a valid point about domestic cricket – we’re either playing on grassy pitches or flat tracks, but rarely on turning surfaces anymore. Plus, top players aren’t playing domestic cricket. This could hurt us in the…
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) November 3, 2024
Lack of domestic cricket
Meanwhile, former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan addressed the lack of red-ball cricket the senior India batters have played on turning pitches at home in recent years.
Reflecting on a chat with his brother and former India all-rounder, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan wrote on X:”Had a solid conversation with @iamyusufpathan bhai yesterday. He made a valid point about domestic cricket – we’re either playing on grassy pitches or flat tracks, but rarely on turning surfaces anymore. Plus, top players aren’t playing domestic cricket. This could hurt us in the long run.”
Harbhajan calls for better pitches
On the contrary, former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, batted for better pitches at home venues urging Inda to move away from turners. “Been saying from many years, Team India needs to play on better pitches. These turning pitches making every batsman look very ordinary,” Harbhajan wrote on X.
“These tracks are prepared for 2/3 day test matches. You don’t need Muralidaran, Warne or Saqlain Mushtaq on these pitches to get the teams out. Anyone can get anyone out,” Harbhajan added in another post.
Reacting to the series defeat, India captain Rohit Sharma had conceded that he was not upto the mark with the bat and his leadership this series.
“From a personal point of view, I wasn’t at my best with both bat and as a captain, that’s something that’ll rankle me. But, we didn’t perform well collectively and that’s the reason for these losses,” he said
