New Zealand defeated India by 8-wickets on Wednesday at The Rose Bowl, Southampton, and were crowned as the first-ICC World Test Champions. India set New Zealand a target of 139 runs in the fourth innings on the reserve day of the Test match.
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson’s 52* off 89 deliveries and Ross Taylor’s 47 off 100 deliveries steered the Kiwi’s home. In this article, we take a look at what went wrong for the Indian Team in the ICC World Test Championship final 2021 against New Zealand.
1. Indian top-order disappoints
Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill helped India to get off to a brilliant start in the first innings of the ICC World Test Championship final. Both put together a 62 runs partnership for the first wicket, before Rohit Sharma (34 off 68) was caught by Tim Southee off Kyle Jamieson’s bowling.
Soon after, Shubman Gill (28 off 64) followed his opening partner back to the pavilion. This has been the story of almost every Top order Indian batsman in this final. Skipper Virat Kohli and his deputy Ajinkya Rahane too got decent starts but couldn’t convert those into big ones.
Indian wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant (41 off 88), in the third innings, was caught by Henry Nicholls as he decided to take on the Kiwi bowlers and extend India’s lead as much as possible. On a wicket where scoring runs has been difficult, India’s top-order batsman not converting their starts hurt India the most.
2. Jasprit Bumrah goes wicketless
Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah couldn’t manage to pick up a single wicket in the ICC World Test Championship Final. Bumrah, who is considered as the leader of the Indian pacer attack bowling attack looked a bit off-color throughout the test match.
He bowled a total of 37 overs in the match, conceding 92 runs, with 11 maidens in the test, but the wicket columns were empty. The Indian pacer did create few wicket opportunities, but the luck wasn’t on his side. Like in the 30th over of the fourth innings, Ross Taylor poked at outside off delivery by Bumrah, but the fielder in the slips cordon, Cheteshwar Pujara couldn’t hold on to the catch.
In an all-important game like the ICC World Test Championship final, India’s lead pacer going wicketless turned to be a major concern for the Indian team.
3. India’s struggle against the tail
India’s struggle in dismissing the lower-order batsman, was on display again in the World Test Championship Final, at The Rose Bowl, Southampton. New Zealand’s lower order contributed 58 runs in the second innings of the Test match, which helped them go past India’s 217 runs and also manage to take a lead of 32 runs.
Kyle Jamieson’s (21 off 16) and Tim Southee’s (30 off 46) cameos in the second innings became a headache for the India bowlers. The lower order quite set up the game for the Kiwis. In comparison to New Zealand’s 58 runs contribution from the lower batting order in the second innings, India’s lower order could only contribute 51 runs combined in both innings in this Test match.
In conditions like England, where scoring runs is difficult, runs from the lower order batsman have always proved useful.