CHENNAI: Long before the ODI leg of the tour began, India head coach Gautam Gambhir had made one thing clear. If India were to do well in the one-dayers, the credit should go to the inexperienced bowling attack considering the weightage and experience the batting line-up carry.
"...if we do well in the one-day series, the credit will go to this bowling attack. We have a lot of experience in batting. But when you come overseas, your bowlers win the series, especially in one-day and Test cricket. So if we go ahead and do well in one-day cricket, a lot of credit should be given to these bowlers rather than talking too much about the batters,” Gambhir had said.
When he said that, even the former opener would not have expected the series to go down the way it did. Multiple matches affected by rain, one complete washout, and a collapse later, India won the series 3-1. And Gambhir promptly posted on social media saying 'Bowlers win you series! Proud of our boys.' And it was true. Gurnoor Brar was the leading wicket-taker with nine scalps in four matches. Arshdeep Singh had eight to show, followed by Axar Patel (6), Auqib Nabi (5) and Anshul Kamboj (4).
However, what neither Gambhir nor anyone in Indian cricket would have anticipated is the extent to which the experienced batting line-up struggled in conditions that helped seamers and had some bounce. The entire series saw India score just one fifty, with Virat Kohli leading the charts for the country — 86 runs in four innings. Axar (74), Ishan Kishan (73), Shreyas Iyer (67) and Naman Dhir (63) followed. Shubman Gill, who played only three matches, had only 37 runs to show for while Rohit Sharma had his worst series since 2012.
The former captain crossed double digits only once in four matches, while averaging 7.5 with the bat. The only time he fared worse in a five-match series was before he became an opener in Sri Lanka 14 years ago. What would trouble the team management and the BCCI is not just the runs but the manner in which the batters got out, especially Rohit. He fell for a first ball duck in the fourth match — a peach from Matt Henry — but all three other occasions were soft dismissals. On Sunday, he tried to chip Matthew Fisher through the leg side only to hit it straight to the fielder at midwicket.
Though Shreyas Iyer reassured that it was a series for the bowlers and the conditions might be different in South Africa come the World Cup next year, it is hard to look past the numbers. Rohit, already 39, will be 40 next April. He plays only one format for India and seem to have expressed interest in turning up for Mumbai in Vijay Hazare and then there is the Indian Premier League. In all the time in between, there is little to no cricket for Rohit to prepare and get game-ready. It has been a question for a while — on how Rohit takes time to settle and scores in the latter part of a series. And it is also a question that reportedly played a contentious role in outgoing selector Ajit Agarkar — who wanted to move on from the senior batter — not wanting an extension. With Agarkar out of the picture, the questions and onus will fall on coach Gambhir and the new chief selector Pragyan Ojha to plan the way forward for India in the lead up to the 2027 ODI World Cup.
Rohit might still come back to India and score runs against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, but this series was a chance to show the way with the bat as the veteran. And the former captain fell short in a massive way.
Brief scores: India 209 in 42.1 ovs (Axar 46, Ishan 46; Santner 3/47, Duffy 3/60) bt NZ 187 in 48.1 ovs (Foxcroft 31; Arshdeep 3/30).
