NZ series: Scars of 46 all out may take a long time to heal for India

It’s not for nothing that cricket is called such a great leveller. The first two sessions of day two of the Bengaluru Test will go down as one of shame for Indian cricket when the hosts, coming in on the back of an 18-series unbeaten streak at home, succumbed to their lowest Test total at home in the face of New Zealand's relentless seam attack on Thursday.

A total of 46 all out seems nothing short of absurd from a batting line-up such as this, beating their previous worst of 75 versus the West Indies in Delhi way back in 1987. Breaking for lunch in a rain-interrupted first session at 34 for six, the Indian batters managed to cross their lowest ever total of 36 at Adelaide in the 2020-21 series Down Under, which had TV pundit Ravi Shastri — who was then the head coach — heaving a sigh of relief. However, Cricket Australia made sure everyone remembered by cheekily trolling the Indian team's abject display.

The odds are still in favour of India coming out on top in this series, but the jolt the Indian batting line-up has received under unusually challenging conditions at home will leave a scar. True, the conditions were overcast and there was both bounce and seam movement at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, but then why show the bravado of batting first after winning the toss?

The trio of veteran Tim Southee, Matt Henry and rookie Will O’Rourke — who posed serious questions to the right-handers by bowling wide off the crease — looked simply unplayable in conditions much to their liking. In an innings which lasted all of 31.2 overs and had 21 as its highest partnership between Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant, new skipper Tom Latham did not have to use more than three bowlers.

The decision to bat first left many questioning the collective wisdom of the team management. The virtues of a settled batting line-up against such methodical rivals need hardly be over-emphasised, but one saw a somewhat tentative Virat Kohli being thrust into the no. 3 position instead of his customary no. 4 spot, and surprise of surprises, Sarfaraz Khan ahead of a technically more equipped K.L. Rahul.

Are the Big Two undercooked?

The team’s relatively new think tank has to understand that Test cricket is not exactly IPL, while it’s time for the Big Two of Indian batting line-up to introspect and decide what’s good for them ahead of the Australia tour. This morning, the captain received a peach of an off-cutter from Southee which took his leg stump, while Kohli tried to fend one off his ribs for a brilliant catch at backward square leg.

Such things can happen in an extraordinarily poor session for the team, but the worrying part is both looked undercooked even in the previous Test series against a modest Bangladesh.

Now on the wrong side of 30 and without the cushion of piling up the runs in T20 format, it may not be a bad idea for Sharma and Kohli to squeeze in some gametime in red-ball cricket in the Ranji Trophy before taking off Down Under. Kohli, in fact, has made it a routine to dash off to England to be with his family the moment a series finishes, and arrives less than a week ahead of the next one.

Test cricket folklore is full of such precedents, when legends of the game have gone back to domestic cricket to get valuable time at the crease. The question is: who will bell the cat?  

India’s lowest totals at home

46 vs New Zealand, Bengaluru

75 vs West Indies, Delhi 1987 (lost)

76 vs South Africa, Ahmedabad 2008 (lost)

83 vs England, Chennai 1977 (lost)

83 vs NZ, Mohali 1999 (draw)

88 vs NZ, Brabourne 1965 (draw)

89 vs NZ, Hyderabad 1969 (draw)