India’s 0-3 Whitewash Against Kiwis is Difficult To Digest

Barely a month ago Team India was on a high with a commanding victory over Bangladesh. Dishing out the aggressive brand of cricket Rohit Sharma’s side looked invincible.
Then comes New Zealand which had lost the Test series in Sri Lanka 0-2 and pundits felt it would be a cakewalk for team India but shockingly they have upset Team Infia’s applecart.
Not only did they win the series but whitewashed the hosts, which had never happened to India in India since 1933.
Seriously, India’s defeat in Mumbai is difficult to digest.
The loss has put a huge question mark on the future of ageing captains Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
Of course, we do not need to take any knee-jerk reactions immediately but the BCCI needs to take this series as a reality check.
The reality is our beloved Rohit and Virat are ageing and we need to groom Jaiswals, Pants and Gills for bigger roles.
The batting now looks vulnerable even at home forget the pitches abroad. One may wonder what would be the fate of Team India in Australian conditions. The Kangaroos will just swallow the Rohit Sharma side without water.
Shockingly a team which had the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly is struggling to play spin due to faulty technique and falls short of chasing 147. Shame.
Even in bowling, we need to admit Jadeja, and Ashwin were not effective at all. They may have got wickets but it was more due to pitch than their expertise or variations.
How could Santaner and Ajaz Patel get so much turn and bounce and Ashwin, Jadeja and Washington Sunder looked average? Credit must also go to Kiwi batters who played with application and did not commit harakiri like Kohli & co did on Day 1 losing three wickets in no time. That is when we had already lost the game.
Barring some individual performances like Sarfaraz Khan (150) in the first match, Shubman Gill (90) and the heroics of Rishabh Pant besides a 7-wicket haul of Sunder there was nothing much in India’s performance.
Moving ahead, the BCCI has to keep one thing in mind though Virat and Rohit have served the country for a long and won accolades they have to be replaced someday and maybe sooner rather than later.
The Australia Series Downunder will make things clear. Of course, there seems to be only 10 percent chance now of India making it to WTC