World Test Championship: Long way to go before claiming ‘best travellers’ title

Whitewash in New Zealand proof that Kohli & Co have long way to go in long format before living up to team management’s ‘best travellers’ claim 
India couldn’t handle New Zealand’s swing bowling, which showed they weren’t prepared enough. (Photo | AP)
India couldn’t handle New Zealand’s swing bowling, which showed they weren’t prepared enough. (Photo | AP)

CHENNAI: Place on top of the World Test Championship table remains intact and so does the No 1 ranking in the format. India’s ambition of becoming a winning team in all conditions got a fresh reality check in New Zealand nonetheless. It may not change anything in terms of the fortunes of the players, but they will know that away from home against quality opposition is a problem they are still to solve.
There are not many teams that can offer stiff competition to top sides in home conditions these days. For India, this challenge is restricted to England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Other than beating an Australian side missing Steve Smith and David Warner due to suspension in 2018-19, conquering these places continue to be a dream.

These defeats are not completely unexpected, considering India’s historically unimpressive record in these countries. But the difference between past setbacks and the latest ones is the opinion of the present team that it can win anywhere. Captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri have said repeatedly this lot is capable of achieving it and even claimed that this is the best from the country to have travelled overseas.

After losing inside four and three days in Wellington and Christchurch, those assertions sound hollow. Not only did India lose, they were outplayed. Other than a period during New Zealand’s first innings in the first Test and another in the second, they were always playing catch-up. Batting was hopelessly inadequate and the fast bowlers failed to live up to expectations in the first Test. They came good in Christchurch, only to be undone by another batting disorder.

“Can’t win if you bat like this. Successive batting failures make it discouraging for the bowlers as well. I think their homework wasn’t alright. It’s important to study the characteristics of a place before you go to play Test matches there. They couldn’t handle New Zealand’s swing bowling, which showed they weren’t prepared enough. And it’s the job of the coaches to ensure that these aspects are covered, by having condition-specific practice. That was one shortcoming,” said Maninder Singh. The collective batting failure was disappointing because before the Test series, the likes of Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari were in New Zealand with the India A team, which played a couple of four-day games against New Zealand A. By the time the Test series started, they had got enough time to get a feel of the conditions and pitches.

“I can understand Virat Kohli or another individual having a bad series, but here all the batsmen failed. It was a great opportunity for the likes of Shaw and Agarwal and others who were there with the A team. But it seems the pitches used for those games were flatter than what they got in the Test series. Unless we sort out the batting problem, the claim of being capable of winning everywhere will remain a claim,” added Maninder. With an ODI series against South Africa coming up before the IPL starting on March 29, the New Zealand setback will soon be forgotten. But the claim-versus-performance drama will restart at the end of the year in Australia. Against an enemy licking wounds, things have to improve drastically for Kohli’s boys to match their captain’s words.

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