Is the New Zealand whitewash the wake up call India and Gambhir needed?
“While as supporters it’s imperative to support the team but this has been a terrible performance from our team” stated Indian legend Virender Sehwag on his Instagram, minutes after New Zealand completed a historic Test series win in India.
New Zealand secured three for three in the series, marking the first time India has been whitewashed on home soil, putting a huge damper on their World Test Championship (WTC) campaign.
As Rohit Sharma’s side are set to travel to Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, this defeat really is a cause for concern.
Prior to this series, India had lost only twice in the 2023-25 Test season, looking comfortable to reach the WTC final for a third time.
But these three defeats have really left the door open for the final two teams, as now New Zealand, defending champions Australia, South Africa and even Sri Lanka are realistically competing alongside India for the final spots at Lord’s.
But when did this trajectory start pointing downwards? In early 2024, India beat England 4-1 in the Anthony De Mello Trophy, and while not Test cricket, they were crowned world champions at the ICC T20 World Cup only a couple of months ago.
However this downfall could be linked one crucial personnel change within the Indian system.
Has ‘Gamball’ really worked?
Former Indian international and World Cup winner, Gautam Gambhir took charge as the head coach of the Indian team from Rahul Dravid after the T20 World Cup. Gambhir had been a long out speaking figure and critic of the Indian team’s tactical decisions, increasingly in the last few years.
His head strong attitude, passionate beliefs and recent successes with IPL side, Kolkata Knight Riders as a mentor, made him an ideal replacment.
His criticisms were always delivered in a manner that made it seem like he had (or was) the solution. He believed that ‘favouritism’ from the selection commitee and a lack of focus on domestically consitent players were the reasons why India failed to achieve success on a global stage.
Now having free reign over the squad, in the near four months that he has been in charge, Gambhir has broken some truly unsavoury records, such as the first defeat to Sri Lanka in 27 years in a bilateral One Day series, and now against New Zealand, a Test series defeat at home for the first time in 12 years along with the first ever Test whitewash at home, as the cherry on top.
However, to be fair to him, India has had some positive milestones during his time such as the fastest team to reach 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 in Test cricket and their highest T20I score of 297, both of which came against Bangladesh.
But with this defeat and the Australian challenge coming up, is this truly the most sustainable way to proceed?
In trouble down under?
With the New Zealand defeat, Australia are safe on top of the WTC table, creating an intimidating sight for Gambhir’s team. India has been successful in their previous two travels to Australia, however historically the Aussies have been far more dominant at home, winning the series eight times in India’s thirteen visits.
Australian wickets are also notoriously favourable to quick pace, which always gives the hosts an advantage due to their massive pool of tall, well built fast bowlers.
This always has been a persisting issue for the Indian batsmen when down under, even in India’s previous victorious tour when they were bowled out for just 36 in Adelaide, their lowest Test total.
Under Gambhir, India has been playing in a similar vein to England and their rapid Bazball style of batting, as in their last ten Test innings, they have been averaging a run rate of 4.45 per innings, only slightly higher than England’s 4.2.
With England also struggling for form recently, having lost the series to Pakistan away from home and virtually being eliminated from the WTC, this fast paced method of batting is slowly losing its edge in the resilience centred format of Test cricket and may not be advantageous in the tricky Australian conditions.
Gambhir and India need to desperately rethink this strategy if they are to have any chance of making it to the WTC final in June next year.
This series against Australia is a do or die situation for both teams, as victory for either of these teams would mean the end for the other’s hopes to get to the final.
