It rarely happens that Team India loses the first match of a Test series at home and its condition is not good in the second match also. Despite losing the first test in the last few years, the Indian team has made a great comeback in the next match. The situation looks somewhat different in the current Test series against New Zealand. After the shocking defeat in the first Test in Bengaluru, Team India faces the challenge of saving the series and the way the Pune Test has started is not giving good signs. This has reminded of that 7 years old test match, which was played on this very ground and Team India had to face defeat.
What happened on the first day in Pune Test?
First of all, let’s talk about the first day of India-New Zealand test match. On the first day of this match, which started on Thursday 24 October, New Zealand won the toss and came out to bat first. The Kiwi team had a good start and Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Will Young together took the team close to 200 runs. It was here that Rachin Ravindra’s wicket fell and Washington Sundar got it and then in no time the Kiwi team got bundled out for just 259 runs. After this, Team India came out to bat but captain Rohit Sharma was out without opening the account and by the end of the day’s play, Team India had scored 16 runs after losing 1 wicket.
Signs of 7 year old accident
Now let’s talk about the danger that is looming over Team India. Actually, the first match was played 7 years ago in 2017 at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. That match took place between India and Australia. In that match also, Australia won the toss and batted first and scored 259 runs after losing 9 wickets on the first day. The Australian innings ultimately collapsed for just 260 runs, just 1 run more than New Zealand’s score. After this, Team India collapsed for only 105 runs in the first innings. Coincidentally, in that innings also, Team India captain Virat Kohli had failed to open the account.
That means the scores of the first innings of Australia and New Zealand are almost equal, whereas in both the matches, the captain of Team India was out on 0 in the first innings. Till now everything is similar, now eyes will be on how many runs Team India scores in the first innings. If we talk about India-Australia match, Australia won that match by a huge margin of 333 runs. Left arm spinner Steve O’Keefe emerged as the biggest hero in this victory of Australia. He took 6-6 wickets in both the innings. Now if we talk about New Zealand, this team also has 2 left arm spinners in the form of Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel. Both of them had troubled Shubhman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal at the end of the first day.
Will dominance break after 12 years?
It is clear from this that the signs of the first day are not good for Team India. Now, if the performance of Team India’s batsmen remains like the 7 year old Test, then New Zealand will win this match also and then something will happen which has not happened in the last 12 years. After about 12 years, a team will come to India and be successful in winning a Test series, which was last done by England in 2012. This means that now there is a big responsibility on the batsmen of Team India to score a big score in the first innings itself because this pitch is turning from the first day and India has to bat in the last innings.
