India went down 2-1 for the first time in an ODI series against New Zealand at home. I am glad I didn’t see too many comments (at least not yet) saying that Harshit Rana’s 50-plus knock and three wickets was a bright spot and if Virat Kohli had stayed on for two more overs, we could have swung this one. Those were bright spots for sure and I am not going to come back to that in this artcile. I think the wolf is clearly at the door and its time to get down to the basics.
Our ability to counter spin is in doubt. And when the opposition bowlers, albeit less skilled than our stalwarts, get control of line and length, a Harmer and a Lennox looks like they will tear through our top-order. This is the most alarming shift. For years, visiting teams feared India’s spinners at home. Now oppositions attack them. Ravindra Jadeja is no longer controlling the middle. Kuldeep Yadav’s wicket-taking ability has dipped. India’s batting against spin looks tentative. This is not just form — this is a skills gap. India are producing T20 power hitters and Test accumulators. But ODI specialists who dominate spin in the middle overs? Almost none.
Our power play bowling is terrible and one must give credit to Daryl Mitchell and Glen Phillips for the parternship. We must not forget that this is a New Zealand without at least five of their top players. It is a fact that when it comes to the crunch, our top-order is unable to rise to the bait. Shubhman Gill, Shreyas Iyer and K L Rahul all failed and it is not that Gill and Rahul were out of form. Rohit Sharma clearly seems out of sorts and in trying to clear the field repeatedly, he seems to have lost his touch.
Jadeja is now a batting all-rounder, but then the last time he scored a fifty in ODIs at home is over a decade ago; as far as his bowling goes, something is clealry lacking. Kuldeep is out of form. Nitish Reddy did come good, but we need to decide if his selection as a batting all-rounder at the cost of say a specialist middle-order bat was worth it.
And finally, what about selection? Why was Arshdeep Singh not played in all the matches? What was the logic of persisting with Prasidh Krishna, only to drop him when it came to the crunch third game? Why was Ayush Badoni included in the squad only to sit him out on the bench? What about captaincy?
Did we throw the baby out with the bathwater in saying we need a young captian across all formats too early? I thoguht that for New Zealand to put on more than 300 runs after being 5 for 2 was clealry not just an issue with performance; alert captaincy would have meant taking some risks and forcing the issue rather than let things drift.
India are losing because the template that once made them masters of ODIs is now stuck between eras. The team is playing a format that has evolved faster than its instincts.
For a decade India’s ODI dominance was built on control. Build a platform. Preserve wickets. Milk the middle overs. Launch late. That model worked when 260 was competitive and 300 was par. But modern ODIs punish hesitation. Teams don’t wait for the 41st over to accelerate anymore. They squeeze you in the middle and force risk earlier. India are still reacting to phases instead of owning them. The 2027 World Cup is not far away in ODI planning terms. India don’t need tweaks. They need a philosophical reset — even if it means short-term discomfort.
For more updates, follow REVSPORTZ.
