INDIA TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND, 2020 India aren't 'the' team; they're just a team like many others Bharat Sundaresan Share Tweet

This was supposed to be the series where Virat Kohli's men proved to the world why they're 'the' team of their generation. ©AFP

At the end of the first Test in Wellington, you thought they'd bounce back for sure. When they lost the toss on the green-top at Christchurch, you thought they'd find a way to turn it into their favour. When they were bowled out for 242, you thought they'd still make a game of it. When they bowled New Zealand over to get a seven-run lead, you felt now surely the tide had turned. Even till as late as noon on Monday (March 2), you somehow got a feeling India would at least now find a way to pull off a miracle.

For that's been the narrative around this Indian team over the last 18 months or so after all. That they can flick on a switch and beat anyone anywhere regardless of where they're playing. That they no longer look at overseas ventures with dread but with belief. But as Virat Kohli took his cap off and took the ball in his own hands with New Zealand needing 7 runs to win at the Hagley Oval on the third afternoon of the second Test, it just hit home how far the truth was from the narrative. Or so it felt at that point anyway. Kohli would later speak about how acceptance and not denial of just how badly India had messed up over the last two weeks was the best way for his team to move on.

But for Kohli & Co, the acceptance of just where they stand as a Test team came-or was delivered-to them in Christchurch. As the Black Caps motored along with little fuss towards a comprehensive victory, the Indians couldn't deny they'd received a thorough thrashing in a series many expected them to dominate.

This was supposed to be the series where Virat Kohli's men proved to the world why they're 'the' team of their generation. But they ended up, unfortunately, showing that they are just ateam among many who has this indomitable aura about their Test cricket at home but are just as susceptible when taken far out from their comfort zone. During the course of an unbeaten 2019, which kicked off with a maiden series win in Australia and saw them gallop to the top of the Test world championships points table, there had been a feeling among some if this team even had competition for their throne. The 2-0 drubbing here though has laid bare some uncomfortable truths.

New Zealand, too, haven't been beaten in a home Test since early 2017 just like India. And they too have won a series away in rather alien conditions. It is tough to argue after all that the Black Caps beating Pakistan 2-1 in the UAE - not to forget drawing with Sri Lanka in their den - is any less significant than India winning in Australia last year. At the same time, the Kiwis too looked rather out of their depth when faced with the tough climes of Australia recently, just like India have here. So perhaps there really is no way to separate any of these teams in terms of just how good they are as an overall package in Test cricket.

Often of late Indian teams have travelled overseas with the pressure and expectation of "this being their best chance" to win in a particular country. Like to South Africa and England in 2018 and Australia later that year. In the first two attempts, they failed, rather convincingly. And on the basis of their complete surrender here, it's tough to ignore detractors who've always pointed out at their win Down Under being influenced greatly by the absence of Steve Smith and David Warner.

It's safe to say though that India have just completed arguably their worst away Test series in many decades based purely on numbers. When was the last time they played a series of this length and you couldn't quite put your finger on who the top run-getter was, purely because of the overall scarcity of them? It's not often that a batsman fails twice in one game of a two-match contest and still ends up with most runs like Mayank Agarwal has here with 102 runs at 25.50. That Cheteshwar Pujara is the only other batsman to have totalled 100 runs across four innings is another sign of just how the batting system just collapsed completely for India this time around. With Kohli, Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane now into their early 30s and with over 60 Tests under their belt, these are batsmen at the absolute peak of their powers, and ideally at a stage where they were expected to set up victory for their team. But it clearly wasn't to be.

It was the Indian fast bowling pack though that was primed to take New Zealand by storm after having developed the ability to take 20 wickets across conditions and climes. But only Ishant Sharma seemed to come to grips with the tricky pitch up in Wellington while Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami struggled to find their lengths. Unfortunately, Ishant was absent for the second Test. And even though the other two did produce sensational spells at Hagley Oval, the lack of depth in the pace department, when it comes to non-subcontinental conditions, was slightly exposed with Umesh Yadav not looking his best consistently enough. It meant India took only 23 wickets in the series - 5 of which went to the spinners - in conditions that were more or less in their favour.

The most glaring aspect of India's abject surrender though was how unlike in past misadventures of a similar nature there was not a single individual positive to take away nor was there the solace-providing performance or a ray of future hope. Nothing even close to VVS Laxman in Australia, 1999-00, Zaheer Khan in New Zealand 2002-03, Rahul Dravid in England 2011 or Virat Kohli in Australia 2011-12, to name a few.

So where to now for India post the reality check? Such has been their haplessness in defeat that the tour of Australia - even if its 7 months away at the moment -already looks like a tougher campaign than it already was. They cannot deny that. To borrow Kohli's word, the answer might lie in acceptance, which in their current state will be of the fact that they perhaps have a long way to go before they can be considered world-beaters. That maybe there is no top-dog in Test cricket for now.

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