India will want to forget this tour of New Zealand as quickly as they can. They started well winning the T20 series but things went south since. India suffered back-to-back whitewashes, losing the ODIs and now the Test series.
What will sting Indian fans and certainly the Indian captain is the manner in which they lost. The number one test team in the world were completely outplayed and lost the second test in under 3 days. The batting let them down yet again. The selectors must have a serious look at some of the players who have failed on this tour.
We take a look at the playing XI for the second test and rank each player from 0 to 10.
TEAM INDIA BATSMEN:
TOP ORDER
Prithvi Shaw (5/10): had a poor game in the first test match and was lucky to have been given a second chance. He made the most of it in the first innings as he notched up a gritty half century but failed in the second test. He will make way for R Sharma once he is fit again.
Mayank Agarwal: (1/10): played well in the first test and was expected to do even better at Christchurch. It wasn’t to be as he made scores of 7 and 3 and his early departure put the middle-order under pressure.
Cheteshwar Pujara (5/10): played the way he normally plays and scored 54 in the first innings but was unable to kick on and make a big score. Pujara likes to play slow and let the others bat around him. However, with wickets falling all around him, he was very limited. He also top scored in the second innings making 24.
MIDDLE ORDER
Virat Kohli (1/10): will be very disappointed with his performance as a batsman and captain. This was a humbling series for the Indian captain who is rated as one of the top two batsmen in the world. He likes leading by example but with scores of 3 and 14, he knows he let the team down when it mattered.
Ajinkya Rahane (1/10): made 7 in the first innings and 9 in the second innings and will be very lucky to keep his place in the next test series. Rahane’s form has been in decline for a few years now and its time the selectors looked at a replacement.
Hanuma Vihari (5/10): top scored in the first innings with 55 and made 9 in the second innings. Vihari did what he could but the pressure was too much for him to handle in the end. He will most likely make way for H Pandya once he is fully fit.
Rishabh Pant (2/10): made 12 and 4 in this game and once again failed. Why the selectors decided to give him a chance ahead of the experienced W Saha remains a mystery yet again.
Ravindra Jadeja (5/10): picked up 2 wickets in the first innings, pulled off a brilliant catch and was unbeaten on 16 in the first innings. There was some criticism for replacing R Ashwin with R Jadeja but his performance justified the change.
TEAM INDIA BOWLERS
Mohammed Shami (6/10): bowled brilliantly in the first innings taking 4 wickets and helped India get back into the game. He couldn’t do much in the second innings as the target was too small.
Umesh Yadav (4/10): came in for I Sharma and did a reasonable job. He picked up just 1 wicket but bowled economically and did not let the Kiwis get quick runs.
Jasprit Bumrah (5/10): was under pressure coming into this game as the media was questioning his form after his return from injury. He did well taking 3 wickets in the first innings and 2 in the second innings.
