Indian cricket team recently toured New Zealand, on February 20. After defeating two relatively weak teams at home, our players were cocky and overconfident that they would beat the Kiwis at home.
On landing in NewZealand Kohli was asked whether he had revenge in mind as Newzealand had beaten us in the hi-octane world cup Semifinal, very much against the odds, as our team was supposed to be the favorite. Kohli replied that kiwis were such good guys that the thought of revenge never crossed our minds. Our Big mouth coach Shastri boasted that we do not care about pitches, or conditions as we are good enough to excel under any condition.
Well, the tour started well for us as we won the 5-match 20/20 series 5/0, with 2 matches decided in super over.
The weaknesses had begun to show, Bumrah our strike bowler supposedly among the best in the world was going wicketless with alarming regularity. Kohli also seemed unlike his dominant aggressive self, scratchy and subdued.
The ODIs followed and the Kiwis showed they had done their homework well, Bumrah was left almost wicketless, Shami was ineffective, Saini was a rookie, and Sharma was his usual inconsistent self, Jadeja and Ashwin seemed out of sorts resulting in a 0/3 loss. The only guy to come with his head held hi was KL Rahul, and horror of horrors our think tank decided to go into the test series with two relatively new openers and KL Rahul was sent home along with Chahal and Yadav our two best spinners.
These guys are so nice, can’t think of revenge: Virat Kohli on WC semi-final loss
What followed in the two Tests was pure mayhem, the Kiwis had done their homework well seems they had worked out the main bowlers as well as batsmen they provided grassy, swing and bounce providing pitches which thoroughly exposed the weaknesses of our batsmen, no one came out with a saved reputation.
Both openers Agarwal and Shaw had a horrendous run Kohli just could not get going as the Kiwis had him sorted out, Rahane was totally out of form in fact questions were raised about his technique in facing bouncing swinging deliveries, Pant had been a super flop sins Australia, his batting and keeping shortcomings were brutally exposed, Jadeja once again proved Manjrekar right that he is just a bits n pieces player and can never be a match-winner in the mold of Kapil or Yuvraj. I feel the Indian think tank erred in.
- Taking the Kiwis too lightly.
- Dropping KL from Test Team.
- Persisting with Rahane.
- Top spinners dropped
- Not preparing well for the tour.
Let’s hope it’s an eye-opener, and our selectors ring in some changes, to bring in fresh blood in place of non-performers. Should depute great batsmen like Gavaskar, Vishy, or even Tendulkar as batting coach.
Get a new Manager in place of the big mouth Shastri, someone strong, quiet and efficient like Jimmy Amarnath, Rahul Dravid,or Mumbai’s Amol Muzumdar.
