For the first time since the winter of 2012, the Indian men's Test side have lost a series. Against the visiting New Zealand team, the hosts—who were favourites to make it to 19 series wins—came a cropper. The Black Caps, who had won only two Tests in 69 years of touring India, have now won two in under two weeks. There are various ways to read the predicament, but almost all of them would acknowledge the end of an incomparable era.
Why did the hosts lose? We could say they fell after two bad tosses, but that would miss the point. It’s undeniable that some of our batters are approaching the end of their careers and the team has entered a phase of transition. The likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Wriddhiman Saha—three players who were part of multiple series wins in India—are no longer there.
Their replacements are young batters with some teething problems. Among the bowlers, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, two greats who have more 810 Test wickets between them, are also on the wrong side of 35. In the Bengaluru and Pune Tests, they were outbowled by younger spinners. The management will continue to put its faith in them, but they need to be replaced in the medium term. One school of thought says that this could well be their last home series together.
A similar situation had happened when India lost a series to England in 2012—legends needed to be replaced by some young players with potential. Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar retired in the next year or so as Virat Kohli became prominent. In batting, the team management wants to adopt an attacking approach. You can debate whether that is the right way to play the longest format, but that is the kind of resource we have at hand.
The team is now blessed with a few aggressive, young batters—Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant and Sarafaraz Khan. So it makes sense to play a brand of cricket they are familiar with. They will mature a bit more before the next home Test series next August—and hopefully be a part of a new winning team.
