This was bad for India and Virat Kohli. In fact, it is difficult to recall the last time the Indians were so thoroughly outplayed across formats.
Whitewashed 2-0 by New Zealand in the Test series after the hosts beat them 3-0 in the ODIs. The deceptive T20 scoreline of 5-0 in India’s favour masks the real story – the Kiwis choked from comfortable positions in the final three matches, losing two in super overs and one by seven runs. Had the Black Caps kept their cool, India would have lost eight matches in a row.
For a top team like India that prides itself in being competitive no matter the opposition or conditions, the New Zealand tour has been an unmitigated disaster. Even when India lost the Test series in England 4-1 in 2018, there was an asterisk next to that result because at least two matches could have gone either way. But in New Zealand, there was simply no contest.
So what went wrong for India during a tour that was supposed to showcase their real strength away from home?
Kohli and Bumrah flop
When your best batsman and bowler fail together for more than a month, there is very little any team can do. Captain Kohli endured one of the biggest failures of his illustrious career as he managed just one fifty from 11 innings that amassed 218 runs. His Test efforts were 2, 19, 3 and 14. Kohli got bowled and lbw with alarming ease on challenging wickets, which was in stark contrast to his Test tour of England in 2018 where he scored nearly 600 runs in five games.
Pacer Jasprit Bumrah was an even bigger disappointment in his first lengthy assignment since his return from a lower back stress fracture. There were concerns that Bumrah had come back too early from a serious injury. Bumrah's rushed return seem to give his bowling whiplash as he was clinically dismantled for the first time in his career.
He failed to pick up a single wicket in three ODIs and took just one in the opening Test; one wicket in 63.4 overs. The trademark nip and accuracy went out of the window as New Zealand reduced a struggling Bumrah to a poor imitation of himself.
Personnel issues
India missed key players and also made a selection miscalculation. All-rounder Hardik Pandya failed to recover from back surgery and that ruined the team's balance. Then in-form batsman Rohit Sharma picked up a calf injury at the end of the T20 series and that hurt India's batting for the rest of the tour as Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw fell well short of expectations.
The one big mistake that the Indians made was not retaining KL Rahul for the Test leg. The batsman was in red-hot form in New Zealand but Kohli went for batsmen who had performed well in the previous Test series. In a short two-Test clash, the Indian batting was blown away on green surfaces.
It is worth noting that Zealand were without frontline bowlers Trent Boult, Matt Henry and Lockie Ferguson for various parts of the tour and yet performed admirably.
Kyle Jamieson
They say one player can’t decide the outcome of a series but in New Zealand’s case, 2.07-metre tall all-rounder Kyle Jamieson was the difference between the two teams at crucial moments in the ODI and Test series.
On his ODI debut in the second match, Jamieson hit a quickfire 25 and took 2-42 in a series winning effort. In the third match, he took 1-53 in a high-scoring match. But it was in the Test series that he really flexed his muscles. He scored crucial knocks of 44 in the first Test and 49 in the second batting at No 9. He took four wickets in the first innings of the opening match and five in the second game to put the Kiwis in the driving seat.
The extra bounce and nip that Jamieson generates off the pitch was too much to handle for the Indians in the second Test in Christchurch as they fell from 194-4 to 242 all out, which was the series deciding moment. And his batting technique is clearly good enough to bat at five or six.
At crucial moments, Jamieson became the enforcer that befits his frame, emerging as a genuine match-winner for Kane Williamson.
