Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma came under fire Monday as India chewed over a 3-0 Test series home defeat to New Zealand, with critics calling the team ageing and low on confidence.
The cricket superpower went down by 25 runs on Sunday in the third Test inside three days at Mumbai for only their second series whitewash at home. It sealed New Zealand’s historic first-ever Test series triumph on Indian soil.
For India there is little time to fix things — they travel to Australia for a five-match Test series starting on November 22.
“Losing 3-0 at home is a tough pill to swallow and it calls for introspection,” former skipper Sachin Tendulkar wrote on social media.
“Was it lack of preparation, was it poor shot selection or was it lack of match practice?”
India went into the series against the Black Caps second in the ICC Test rankings, behind Australia, and as clear favourites.
But repeated batting collapses — they were 46 all out in their first innings in the opening Test — set alarm bells ringing. It hardly got much better from there.
“I accept the fact that we were not good enough with the bat in the entire series,” said skipper Rohit Sharma.
It particularly showed the Indian batsmen’s surprising inability to handle spinners on turning pitches in their own backyard.
