Second Test: Mistakes show that Indian cricket is in rerun mode and that isn’t a good thing

Sometimes, you like to go back to your favourite sitcoms and watch them over and over again. You know what to expect, you know what will happen, you know how it will happen and it always follows the script but it all still has a very satisfying feel to it.

Watching the Indian team against New Zealand in the second Test at the Hagley, also felt like a rerun. You knew what to expect (the opposition tail will wag), you know what will happen (the Indian top order will collapse), you know how it will happen (the mode of dismissals remains the same) and it always follows the script but it was rather tough to watch — there was no satisfaction to be derived here.

At close of play on Day 2, India were 90/6, with an overall lead of 97 runs. On a day that swung wildly, the visitors will feel that they have come off second-best.

Most wickets in a day’s play at the Hagley Oval

16 - NZ v Ind (Day 2) 2019/20
14 - NZ v Pak (Day 3) 2016/17
14 - NZ v Ban (Day 4) 2016/17
14 - NZ v SL (Day 1) 2018/19

The first murmurings of discontent seemed to begin after New Zealand were reduced to 153/7. The Indian bowlers had been superb all morning. They had taken regular wickets, sent back the established names and the hosts looked like they would struggle to even make it to 200.

But then – as we have seen happen so many times since 2018 – the tailenders got going. Well, it might be an insult to call Kyle Jamiesen a tailender since he bats like anything but one. However, he combined with Colin de Grandhomme and Neil Wagner to confidently bat his team back into the match.

A lead of 50-60 runs on a wicket that has seen the bowlers dominating would have had immense value but instead, India ended up with a lead of just seven runs. It feels like a series of missed opportunities – India’s batting could have done better in the first innings, they were in a good position too before they gave it away. To put things in perspective, India lost their last six wickets for 48 runs, New Zealand’s last two wickets added 58.

Then, there is the question of the tail that wags. The runs scored by the 8th to 10th wicket partnerships for New Zealand in this series are 205 in 2 innings. India, for those same partnerships, has got 97 runs in 3 innings. This isn’t to suggest that the tailenders need to do the heavy lifting, instead this is merely to say that they too can do better.

In the pre-match conference, coach Ravi Shastri had confidently said that India will have different plans for the tailenders but clearly, these plans didn’t work either. So does that mean a trip back to the drawing board for the bowlers?

But it isn’t just the bowlers who need to do that. The batsmen, when they came out to bat, were perhaps even more guilty.

Mayank Agarwal was once again dismissed by the ball that came into him. Prithvi Shaw fell to the short ball angled into his rib cage again. Virat Kohli was trapped leg-before after being set up by a few outswingers from de Grandhomme just as he was by Tim Southee in the first innings. Feels like a rerun? It sure did.

Ajinkya Rahane was given a working over by the short ball. Jamieson hit him on the helmet too. But for some reason, the India vice-captain decided he was going to keep trying to be aggressive against the bouncers. It didn’t make any sense. He had already been dropped in the deep by de Grandhomme on two but he had clearly decided that he was going to get it right or die trying. In the end, he died – playing a slower bouncer from Wagner back onto the stumps.

One would have expected an experienced batsman to read the situation better and bat for time in this instance but Rahane was hellbent on self-destruction. The intent was fine, the sheer mindlessness of it wasn’t.

Cheteshwar Pujara followed him back to the dressing room thanks to a peach of a delivery by Trent Boult that started wide and then came in sharply to disturb the timber. Umesh Yadav, who was surprisingly sent out as a night watchman, was dismissed in a similar manner with Boult taking his wicket too.

India’s batsmen averaged 20.60 in South Africa, 25.23 in England and 34.69 in Australia on their last overseas cycle and they have done almost as badly in New Zealand as well.

The batsmen simply haven’t got going. As good as India’s bowling attack has been, the batting perhaps has been just as poor. And while Shastri is known to throw up random statements about how well the current Indian team travels, it should also hopefully be clear to him that his batsmen are up to no good.

It’s all very good to say that Test cricket is our No 1 priority but performances like these show that not enough is going in the planning. The mistakes are being repeated and that is perhaps a sign of a unit that is too set in its ways. The bowlers may bail out India again on Day 3 but for them to even have the opportunity of doing that, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja will have to bat out of their skins and at least get India to 150.

Given how India have been batting, that seems like a tough ask but the visitors have their backs to the wall and it is either that or the humiliation of a 0-2 scoreline.