In Bengaluru, India had cited the adverse weather conditions and the decision at the toss as critical factors for the loss. In Pune, the batters were not able to get the likes of Mitchell Santner out of the box and had admitted that they needed to be playing more sweeps and reverse-sweeps on occasions to put the bowlers off. By the time they were in Mumbai, they had no excuses. No solutions. No answers.

They were instead left fending for reasons to fathom just how New Zealand had managed to do the unthinkable and become the first team to clean sweep them 3-0 on Indian soil in 130 years. For instance, they did play their sweeps and reverse sweeps - both of which had a couple of disastrous consequences - and had no change in the eventual result from the second Test. And no longer could the outcome be brushed away as "things that are allowed to happen once in 12 years". The scoreline, after all, aptly reflected the way in which which New Zealand had outplayed India, and left them in a state of shock. This was just not just a one-off defeat. This was complete domination on the part of the Kiwis and an abject surrender as far as India are concerned.

Why the batting hurry?

Kanpur, 2024 has been cited multiple times by different members of India's team-management over the course of the series. That they could produce quick runs was never in doubt after that. But sticking to a largely aggressive approach, has often waylaid the team in direr conditions that have prevailed throughout this series in all three Tests. At the centre of that approach was the captain himself, who on the final day was out trying to score quick runs on a wearing pitch.

While his shot-selection - an attempted pull - could be in question, the approach for the surface was par for the course. But tellingly, Rohit's poor run has extended through the year. His average of 29.40 is the lowest for him in a calendar year since he started opening in the format in 2019. Remarkably, this has been his best year in T20 cricket in the same period with his avg (36.13) & strike rate (154.66) both the highest for a calendar year.

"I haven't defended a lot in this series because I haven't been there much to defend," Rohit said. "I have to look at my own game and try and see what best I can do. When I go to bat, I always think about how I can put the team in the best situation of the game so sometimes when the openers go in, they set the tone.

"Sometimes you can fall on the other side of it as well, and in this series, I have fallen on the other side of it. I don't see that I have lost faith in my defence. It's just that I need to spend more time defending balls, which I haven't done in this series," admitted Rohit and added a revelatory statement. "So, as you grow, you try and evolve, and I am trying to evolve as a batter as well to try and see what else I can do. So, in that, there is a chance that you can fall on the other side of it, which clearly I have. So, I will re-look at my game and see what best I can do."

India's batting evolution or the attempt to do so has been exaggerated since Kanpur. Whether it's their relative success there that has spurred them on to do so, or if they believe that this is the way Test cricket should now be played, like England do, is up for debate.

"When sometimes the wickets as tricky as they have been over the last couple of games and sometimes trying to fire a shot and get runs is certainly more important than necessarily batting time," believed Tom Latham.

Interestingly, the Man of the Series Will Young had a strike-rate of only 53 over the series and his trust in defence and the ability to play spin on a tough surface even offers the counterpoint to a one-eyed outlook on batting on tough surfaces. The approach as cited by both captains were also dictated by the conditions.

Did the pitches backfire?

"Playing on pitches and all of that, we don't decide so much before," said Rohit. "What we want changes from series to series. We played on really good pitches against England. And this time around, we felt that this was the right thing for us to do as a team. More often than not, we have come on the right side of it. This is the only time where we have fallen short in terms of what we wanted to achieve from this series," he said when asked if India would review their strategy of playing on turning pitches.

The World Test Championship points up for grabs in this series was a carrot that India could not avoid, try as they may. They'd have been sitting pretty if the results had gone their way, and headed to Australia on a more confident note, as well as an easier route to the final. Now, they can't afford to lose even one game Down Under if they are to make it to the final without depending on other results. Additionally, some of these pitches also meant a lesser workload for their pacers with the spinners having to do the bulk of the job. Heading into Australia, that could have helped put them in a better stead. India, eventually, went into the final Test without the services of Jasprit Bumrah even as crucial WTC points were at stake. While India might have been confident about this route taken for this series, it ultimately worked against them.

It brought in a trio of non-regular spinners like Mitchell Santner, Ajaz Patel and Glenn Phillips on equal footing with the likes of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. The additional pressure caused by the lack of runs meant that the trio found a place in cricketing folklore, as the most unlikeliest combination to not only ride up a mountain but sever the demon himself.

Additionally, it did not serve much purpose to their pace-bowling questions. Is Akash Deep ahead of Mohammad Siraj now in the pecking order, behind Bumrah? Is Siraj the same bowler he was a few years ago? In Mumbai, Siraj had little to do and heading into Australia, that would be another question to add to the many more that India'd have to face.

What next for the senior core?

A little over four months ago, Rohit and Kohli were a picture of glee having won that elusive ICC title. Now, being a part of the an unwanted piece of history will be a blemish on their career. And more so because, neither could manage to impose themselves on the game. Kohli has looked a far-cry from his confident self as he was in his run-scoring days. Changes to stance and endless workout in the 'nets' haven't brought him closer to the results that he'd have wanted.

"It's one day you're on a high, one day you're not. And that is something that I've learned at a very young age about life," Rohit said. "So, but that is something that personally I also drive myself through with not getting carried away with certain things in life. It is important, you know, for me to understand that, you know, life is not about just highs. There can be lows as well, which I've seen a lot through my career. So, but definitely, you know, something like this will be a very low point in my career, you know, having lost, you know, three games at home.

"And, yep, we, I fully take the responsibility of that, you know, as a captain and as a leader as well. I have not been at the best of my abilities right from the start of the series. And yeah, with the bat as well, I've not been good enough," philosophized Rohit.

"But just right now, it's just trying to understand what we didn't do right, and what we need to do better as a team. We made a lot of mistakes. So, those mistakes need to be addressed, it's something we will talk about," he added.

Those conversations, you'd imagine, would be as hard as the series had been for his team.

Source: cricbuzz