Interesting test match this. India obviously started off favorites despite their
3-0 drubbing in the ODIs but they definitely had the better team on paper as compared to the 'second tier' team. That said, the stats show that both teams have been scratchy. India had not won a single series overseas against a top test team in last
7 years! The last series they won was under Rahul Dravid by 1-0 in 2007. Even their last series win was against
West Indies in 2011 which they won by not so handsome
1-0 margin. That was some
958 days back and it is not that they doing great at home of late either. The record in the last
13 tests for India is:
LLDLLLLLLLLDD. That is a shameful record to say the least who is one of the top ranked test nation. Yes, I know the rankings are not trustworthy but still that is too bad a record for a top nation. On the other hand, NZ have done extraordinarily well losing just 1 series in the recent past that against Bangladesh and this team does look to have hunger to win unlike the teams of 2 years back or so. For the record, this was NZ first win against India in
12 long years!
I can point out a number of factors responsible for India's defeat.
1. That batsmen should have shown a bit more resistance; they seemed like they wanted to finish the game in a jiffy.
2. Dhoni's captaincy has never been great, particularly in the test matches outside India but in this test match, the point when India had NZ well under control in the 2nd innings and that is when the Mahendra Singh's ham-fisted way of captaincy was seen. Why in the world would you hand over the ball to a chap like Rohit Sharma when you could have finished things off and not the let the other team's lead cross the psychological barrier of 400 runs?
It is not that Dhoni's batting form is good either. Lets take a look at the records.
Last 10 Test Innings:
Player
|
Runs
|
50s
|
100s
Virender Sehwag
|280|0|1
Gautam Gambhir
|312|2|0
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
|218|0|0
And all this when I can think of at least
3 gloveman good enough to represent India. As far is his captaincy is concerned, I think it has taken a huge dip, particularly overseas. It is frustrating to see a skipper have long off and long on in place in the first session of play of a test match. Such defensive captaincy will do no good. I know the bowlers are not that good but you got to be attacking as I captain. I thought Anil Kumble made a good attacking skipper but shame he had not many years of cricket left by the time the captaincy chance came his way. Coming back to Dhoni, if anyone wants to make a shout that he is
4th on the list of
most wins as skipper in international matches with
135 games then let me inform you that he is
3rd on the
most matches lost list too with
90 matches. So, my question is why are fingers not raised against Dhoni when you have dropped players with better record than him, and when you have players who can take his place in the team. Is it that India still think of Dhoni as their midas touch man or are they not courageous enough to appoint another skipper whilst continuing with Dhoni in the team just to get the alarm bells ringing for him? Or is it because of his great friend's influence in the board? If you know what I mean.
Well, I think Jadeja is no longer test player. He has scored 3 triple centuries at 8th place in domestic matches, so? Ashwin has done pretty well with his bat against International teams in India and in New Zealand (recently) and Australia as well. I'm still wondering why the hell world's best test all-rounder was dropped in first test-match.
Ashwin could play very well and sensible with bat yesterday. The batting department should not be changed. All of them can do better in next match. So I don't think there's need to drop any of them.
