Is New Zealand the new Pakistan for India in cricket?

Defeat is after all the other side of victory in a game. Simple, as it may sound, it gets into a messy tangle when its course veers away from what the local fans expect. It becomes even more unpalatable if the patrons of the game see it as a collective failure of their team which has not been shown a mirror to, on its current level of performance in a long time.

This, in a nutshell, can describe how the recent Test series between India and New Zealand shaped up. The build up to the three-match series which began in Bengaluru on October 16 after Dasara was on expected lines. The tigers at home were supposed to growl and do nothing more to subdue their Kiwi cricket rivals, who were on the Indian soil after being given a brown wash by neighbours Sri Lanka 0-2 in a two-match series. Moreover, the New Zealand team had never won in India over 35 years and naturally, this time too it would not have been expected to be any different.

None could guess what was to follow in less than three weeks as the match started a day after its scheduled begin by date in the Garden City. By the time it got over in less than three days on Sunday, it left behind a series of bloodied reputations, punctured egos and, above all, the fancied home team being beaten in their own game by a rival player of their own ilk to complete a torrid 18- day tournament. Not to speak of yet another tormentor, who learnt the spinning tricks much better and put it to deadly effect in the earlier match to grab a historic series win for the visitors.

For a long time, the Black Caps can enjoy the bragging rights on their unmatched performance. A quick look at the 15-match series played between the two teams throws up a very real scenario: After a rare series win in 2008-09, Indians had won their matches on home grounds. But in the last three years, the Men in Blue had crashed with an upset defeat in the inaugural World Test Championship against the SENA team, which they were expected to win and after close runs in other international meets, were made to face this turn for the worse on November 3.

A few decades ago, from the infamous desert storm matches in Sharjah, which later became notorious for being a hub of alleged betting and fixing to playing in their respective countries, India-Pakistan matches had become hopelessly one-sided as none gave us a chance to win. It took nearly a decade, into the new millennium to set it on course for the hapless Indians then.

Similarly, with the psychological advantage that New Zealand has wrested in 2021 and continue to enjoy it three years later, the gentleman assassins now are the new nightmares for our smug, bang bang cricketers who enjoy playing in controlled conditions and raking in the moolah. With excess baggage, superstars well past their sell-by-date still enjoying undeserving clout in the right circles of the game, we can expect another fresh phase of reality checks as we embark upon our next trip to Australia in a few days from now where the team awaits us, wearing its aggression on its sleeve.