There was hardly a single day where India was satisfied and comfortable going back into the dressing room during the three-match Test series against New Zealand. Anil Kumble, the former captain and head coach of the Blue Brigade, has shown no mercy to slam the fragile batting of the Indian team. The constant fall of the top order has been the biggest reason behind their 3-0 whitewash.
Anil Kumble has also called for the management, both head coach Gautam Gambhir and their chief of selector Ajit Agarkar, to sit and introspect before they head to Australia for the upcoming five-match Test series of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
Having picked up the final wicket of the Kiwi side on the third day’s play, they were set for a target of 147 runs on the turner of the Wankhede track for the consolation win of the series, which could end up being one of the vital victories from the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 final qualification aspect.
Anil Kumble blames the approach and attitude of India’s batters
None of the batters looked to be having a gameplan against the spinners, as Ajaz Patel picked up a four-wicket haul in the second innings. Apart from Rishabh Pant, who offered some resistance in the batting with his firing knock, the rest of the batting fell like a pack of cards to record a 25-rum defeat at the end.
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Anil Kumble lambasted on the choice of rank turners by the management in the second and third Test of Pune and Mumbai and hailed the Blackcaps batters for countering those spinning tracks throughout the series to script their historic series win. For the first time, they won three successive away Tests.
“India needs to introspect and then, you know, understand what kind of surfaces you need to play on as well. I think we spoke about it even in Pune before the start of the Test match itself. It was spin to win, but it’s certainly given New Zealand a chance to come out there and then do what they have done exceptionally well. Everybody has a good soft word and nice word about the Kiwis, but this was a performance where New Zealand dominated in the series.” The Karnataka-born expressed this during his discussion on Jio Cinema, the host broadcaster.
The likes of Mitchell Santer and Glenn Phillips, who are renowned for their white-ball bowling, blew away the batting of the home side with 22 wickets between them. Despite the huge experience of India’s spinners, they fell short in results.
“Yes, of course, the win was just by 25 runs, but the way they went about countering the pitches, the conditions, the bowling, and that’s what you need to give credit to New Zealand. Whereas India succumbed to all of those that I mentioned.” Anil Kumble added.
“I think the pitch got to the heads of the Indian batters. Of course, the quality of Indian spin vs the quality of New Zealand. I think we don’t even need to mention, the kind of experienced bowling attack that India has.” The former leg-spinner shed light.
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India lost 37 wickets against the spinners, averaging under 25. That displayed the worrying factor of the batters in facing those bowlers. To go through the batting line-up of India in just one session speaks about the approach and attitude of the home batters.
“Collectively, I think as a batting unit, they have not been able to come out of those collapses that we just spoke about, you know, in a session to get bowled out losing five wickets, six wickets in a session that’s happened far too often for this lineup, to sit down and say look there’s nothing wrong I think there’s something seriously wrong when you introspect I think the most difficult part is to accept that there’s a problem.” Anil Kumble concluded the discussion.