Ind-NZ Series - Take Home for India

India posted a clinical series victory against the Kiwis at MA Chinnaswamy Stadium in the last match of the 2-match bilateral series. The subcontinental giant had won the series 2-0 and relished a test victory after almost a year, which again was a similar result against West Indies at home. After the drubbing at the hands of the Aussies down under, this would come as a breather to the Indian cricketers as well as the fans. Though this would do a huge good to the morale of the Indian outfit, they cannot be satiated until they come out triumphant against England and Australia later this year and early next year respectively.

This series was important to not only the Indian players but also to the so-called pundits who were questioning the transition from the stalwarts like Rahul Dravid and Laxman to the younger brigade. The major performers in this 2 match series were not the Sachin Tendulkars or the Sehwags or the Zaheers, but the youngsters in the squad. India excelled in all the 3 departments (it was only 2 departments until these young guns made it to the squad. Nobody dared to speak of fielding before) after really quite sometime. It definitely is true that it is too early to be judgemental if India have actually been able to fill the void created by Dravid and Laxman, but it most assuringly is the right direction.

Cheteshwara Pujara making a comeback to the international arena after a hiatus played his role to the T. Barring his one wrong shot in the first innings in Bangalore,where he hooked Tim Southee to fine leg, he played the anchor role just fine. Rahul Dravid would have been really proud with a the technique showed by this 24 year old from Rajkot. He was at ease again the moving ball which he had to deal with after a poor display by Gambhir in 2 out of the 3 innings. His century in the first match and the 48 in the 2nd innings in the 2nd match are a tribute to this young man’s ability.

The next big thing for India in the shorter version of the sport,proved why he is not just good in the blue uniform, when he blazed 2 half centuries and a brilliant century in the series. Virat Kohli was at his element during all the 3 innings and continued to prove why he is one of the best finds in the recent past for India. His fielding made a huge difference to the entire team and helped reduce a lot of runs, and he held onto some brilliant chances. The amazing confidence and exuberance shown by him in the field and the batting was rubbed off on the Indian skipper as well who had a decent outing with the bat in the 2nd test.

India at least seem to have found appropriate replacements to the retired Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh who is staring down the retirement barrel. The spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha did an amazing job with the ball in both the tests taking 31 out of the 40 wickets of the Kiwi batsmen. Their partnership was brilliant with Ojha doing more of the container job whilst picking some important wickets but Ashwin was the pick of the bowlers. He has taken 49 wickets in 8 test matches at 26.63 a wicket. The left armer ended with a rich haul of 11 wickets from the 2 tests taking his career tally to 75 wickets from 16 matches.

The sad part of this series apart from the poor performances from seasoned cricketers was the fact that Ajinkya Rahane and Subramaniam Badrinath were warming the benches in both the tests. Though Badri’s inclusion into the squad was a surprising one, and looks like Kris Srikkanth’s last chance to bring in another Tamil Nadu player into the national fold. But Rahane with a phenomenal first class average of above 60 was definitely warranted a place in this line up and this series being against one of the weaker opponents, would have been the best launch pad for Ajinkya. Suresh Raina was given a look ahead of the Mumbai batsman. But with Laxman and Dravid leaving the team for a bigger cause, it would have been wiser for the never retiring Sachin Tendulkar to have atleast given this series a break by allowing atleast one more youngster to play.

India will take more positives than negatives from this series. The 2 victories in this series has made MS Dhoni the most successful skipper in India. There are 2 Twenty20 internationals between these 2 teams before they leave to Sri Lanka for the T20 World Cup. Definite take-home for India from this series is there is not much worry in the replacements for Dravid and Laxman atleast against one of the weaker teams in the home conditions. It waits to be seen when the extra one youngster would make it to the playing 11. There is definitely one person who can make this happen.