Anil Kumble, the India leg-spinner and former head coach, has expressed some serious issues with the batting of the team after it lost a 3-0 Test series whitewash at the hands of New Zealand.
He noted that the biggest issue the team under Rohit Sharma's leadership faces is that they have to accept the fact that there is an issue that needs to be sorted out in the batting camp. Chasing 147 for a win at the Wankhede Stadium, India were bowled out for 121, and they became the first Test team to be clean swept on home soil since Australia did it in 1999/2000.
It was merely Rishabh Pant's counterattacking 57-ball 64 which formed some semblance of notability in another woeful batting performance from the hosts. It did not also help India that its skipper Rohit Sharma managed just 91 runs in six innings and that its talisman Virat Kohli could score just 93 runs in six innings. New Zealand exposed the fragility of India in batting against spin in conditions suited for spin.
"This has been the trend in the last three Test matches. Every time the spinners come on, one match after another fails to produce much different improvement from the previous game. Some modifications by some of the players helped the batsmen to an extent but overall this batting unit would not have prevented this collapse at any cost".
"This has happened too frequently in one session. To me, it's nothing wrong. If that set of batsmen comes in today and says, 'We did nothing wrong', then seriously something is amiss somewhere. The biggest battle now is to acknowledge the existence of a problem. If this Indian team as a unit sits to think together, they'll certainly recognize that there's some problem that needs fixing." That was Kumble, who spoke to JioCinema and Sports18 about the recent loss at Trent Bridge.
Former India wicket-keeper-batsman and selector Saba Karim feels the Indian team has to go back to the drawing board to see where they went wrong with the bat against New Zealand.
"If you look at the three Test matches-they have got over in two to three days; there was rain in Bengaluru due to which the game ended on the fifth day. These are our conditions, and we should have prepared them in a way that we could've played at least three or four sessions.".
"This is a big indication that Indian batting has been a failure throughout the series. When you prepare a wicket like this, you cannot think that only you will win the toss and bat first; you need to be prepared for all scenarios. I think the Indian team is at a stage where they really need to think hard and go back to the drawing board.".
It was actually a great show with the ball. But batting can be as important. I think overall across three games, Indian batters were looking to accelerate their innings to put runs on the board, and here that was not so necessary.
Kumble signed off by thanking Glenn Phillips for standing up to support Ajaz Patel from the other end and dishing out a great defense of 147 on the third day of the third Test. "We knew that spin would play a major role in New Zealand's innings as well. Ajaz Patel was always going to be the danger man for India, and he certainly was.".
"But what was surprising—and more important for New Zealand—was the support from the bowler at the other end, Glenn Phillips. I thought he bowled very well, sticking to disciplined areas.
"They were under pressure when Rishabh Pant was at the crease, but outside of that, New Zealand seemed confident that if they could dismiss Pant, they'd have a good chance. And that's exactly how it played out."
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