Critical analysis: India vs New Zealand Test series 2024

New Zealand’s tour of India for a three match test series in 2024 wasn’t a remarkable one for the hosts. Indian Team were whitewashed as they lost the series by 3-0. It was after 12 years when India lost a series at home. Big guns- Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma- failed on various occasions and that was one of the reasons for the series’ defeat. However, we can not solely blame the two legends as it was the whole batting unit that collapsed on multiple occasions. But if we look at the bowling department, spin trio- Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar and Ravichandran Ashwin did all they could as they made most of the turning tracks. 

Test match 1: 16-20 October, 2024: M. Chinnaswamy Stadium

The first match itself started on a low note as India were all out at 46 in the first innings of the first test. In reply, Black Caps scored a huge score of 402. It was sort of impossible for Indians to make a comeback from that stage of the game.

In the second innings they did manage to score 462 with Sarfaraz Khan and Rishabh Pant being their heroes who scored 150(195) and 99(105) respectively. But that wasn’t sufficient as visitors needed only 107 runs to win the match. The first match gave a lot of confidence to them because of their comfortable win in Chennai. David Conway(91 off 105), Rachin Ravindra (134 off 157) and Tim Southee(65 off 73) were the anchors of the game. 

Overall, it was a perfect start for New Zealand and a nightmare for Indians. The confidence of the latter team was depleting as they lost a test in their home conditions.

Test Match 2: 24-26 October, 2024: Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium 

The second test match ended in three days with Black Caps being victorious yet again. In the first innings, New Zealand scored 259 runs with Washington Sundar grabbing seven wickets. Again, David Conway and Rachin Ravindra scored half centuries each and laid the foundation. In reply, India was all out at 156 as the batting line up collapsed miserably. 

By the start of the second innings, Black Caps were at a lead of 103 runs. Later, Tom Latham scored 86 off 133 balls. On the other hand, R. Ashwin took 2 wickets, W. Sundar took 4 wickets and R. Jadega took 3 wickets. After the end of New Zealand’s second innings, India had to chase 359. The target was very huge, considering the form of Indian batters. The team could only score 245 with Yashasvi Jaiswal scoring highest runs- 77(65). 

Match 3: 1-3 November, 2024: Wankhede Stadium

Just like the second match, the third match too ended within three days. The defeat in the third match will hurt the hardest and for the longest time as India lost the match by their own suicidal methods. New Zealand scored 235 and 174 as 3-4 batsmen made their contributions. In reply, India scored 263 and 121 and hence lost the match by 25 runs. 

In India’s second innings, they had to chase only 147 with three days in hand. It seemed to be a cake walk but Indian batting line up failed to win as they collapsed on regular intervals. Rishabh Pant showed some resilience, but spin craft by Ajaz Patel ensured a 3-0 whitewash for Indians. 

Next assignment: Border Gavaskar Trophy 

The Indian team’s next big assignment is the Border Gavaskar Trophy that will commence in the last week of November. Men in blue should take the positives from the series and drive all their attention in winning the big series in Australia. 

Three outright defeats in home tests have reduced their qualification chances for World Test Championship Finals, hence, the only resort for them is to play their A game in Australia. 

Standings: WTC 

As of now, India stands on second position in the points table. The first spot is held by Australia. Each team gets 12 points for a win, 6 points for a tie and 4 points for a draw. They are ranked according to the percentage of points won. Following are the details of points table: