India’s proud streak of not losing a home test series since 2012 came to an abrupt end on Saturday in a humiliating 2-0 defeat by New Zealand, who exposed cracks in the hosts’ vaunted batting line-up by tormenting them with pace and then spin.
The alarm bells will be ringing for India before they embark on a gruelling five-match tour of Australia next month, with the team’s form under the microscope after they were bowled out for 245 in Pune and suffered a 113-run defeat.
While spinner Mitchell Santner took six wickets for a match haul of 13 to spell doom on a turning pitch, the hosts were left in tatters by New Zealand’s pace bowlers in overcast conditions in the series opener at Bengaluru.
“It’s a really special feeling. Very proud to be in this position,” said new permanent skipper Tom Latham, who took over from Tim Southee after a 2-0 defeat in Sri Lanka.
“It’s not just me but a team effort … I’m stoked for the guys. It’s really special.”
India continue to top the World Test Championship standings despite the two defeats but will be less confident about a spot in next year’s final after their first series loss on home soil since falling to England in 2012.
Their run of 18 successive home series wins since that 2-1 humbling was snapped by the inspired Black Caps, who were by far the better side and will target a clean sweep heading to the finale in Mumbai from Friday.
Man-of-the-match Santner ended with 6-104, earning the Black Caps a maiden series victory in India, and they achieved the feat without their best batsman Kane Williamson due to a groin issue.
With spin dominating on the black-soil turner at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, it was fitting that Ajaz Patel took the final two wickets, including Ravindra Jadeja for 42, to seal the victory.
New Zealand became only the fourth team to win a test series in India since 1990 after South Africa, Australia and England.
“When you come over here, you always want to compete,” Latham added. “Santner in the first innings was fantastic. To get a break and bowl the way he did, credit must go to him.”
England spun into collapse as Pakistan seal come-from-behind series win
Pakistan captain Shan Masood said his team showed tremendous character to register back-to-back victories against England and win their first test series on home soil since 2021.
Smarting from an innings defeat in the series opener, Pakistan levelled the series in Multan before arriving in Rawalpindi where they rolled out a raging turner.
Their spin twins Noman Ali and Sajid Khan claimed 19 of the 20 English wickets to bowl Pakistan to a nine-wicket win that also secured their 2-1 series victory on Saturday.
“Like London buses they come together,” Shan said of their successive victories in the series.
“The first win came after a long time and it was backed up by a series win. It’s special.”
After losing the opener, Pakistan took a bold selection call by dropping three frontline players — batter Babar Azam and the pace duo of Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi.
Sajid and Noman were brought in and the duo claimed 39 of the 40 English wickets in the last two tests, apart from producing useful cameos with the bat, to vindicate the move.
Sajid cut his chin while batting on Friday and had to change his bloodied shirt but returned on Saturday to spin a web around the English batters.
“For everyone to stand up and give their best means a lot,” said Shan, who sealed Pakistan’s victory with a six off England spinner Shoaib Bashir.
“It is about characters, people you can trust, people you think can bleed for you — Sajid literally bled for us yesterday.
“To be here and standing as the winning team is the most special thing for us.”
England folded for a meagre 112 in their second innings with only Joe Root (33) looking comfortable against Pakistan’s rampaging spinners.
Their usual tactics of swashbuckling batting have looked somewhat one-dimensional and inadequate on turning tracks and against in-form spinners.
“The last couple of Tests we’ve been thrown some challenges, and I think it’s pretty easy to assess that were weren’t able to stand up to those challenges,” England captain Ben Stokes said.
“The great thing about sport is that those challenges will always come along, but in the last two games we weren’t able to match what Pakistan threw at us.
“We’ve got a very quick turnaround to another challenge in New Zealand, so we’ve got to put the disappointment of the last two games behind us and move on.”
Reuters