India’s Current Test Side Mocked By Ex-Sri Lanka Captain After Home Series Defeat

It has always been a hard job to beat India at home in a Test series. Many teams tried hard in the last 12 years but very few sides came close. Others couldn’t even compete. They were unbeaten at home since losing the 2012 red-ball series against England.

Australia came close in 2016 when they got the better of the blue brigade during the opening encounter at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune, but the Virat Kohli-led marked a fabulous comeback with two victories in the next two clashes.

India’s rare Test series defeat at home

Going into the five-match Test series in the Border Gavaskar Trophy down under, the Rohit Sharma-led side needed five victories in as many games. The aim was to beat Bangladesh and New Zealand at home to qualify for the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 final at the Kennington Oval in South London.

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The two-time runners-up of the event quite comfortably blew away the Najmul Hossain Shanto-led side with two victories. No one predicted any struggle for the side against the Blackcaps, who were whitewashed by a 3-0 margin during the 2016 series in their previous trip.

But the Kiwis had a different plan. A fragile batting performance of 46 runs in the first innings never allowed the home side to make a return into the opening clash at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The visitors claimed an eight-wicket victory in the fixture.

India’s poor form against the spinners continued in the second game in Pune. They managed 155 and 245 in both innings with the bat and fell short of 113 runs in the second encounter. At the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, the Rohit Sharma-led side touched the bottom as they failed to chase 146 in the fourth innings and ended with 121.

Arjuna Ranatunga makes this bold statement

Former World Cup-winning captain of the Sri Lankan side, Arjuna Ranatunga, claimed that the 1996 side, which beat Australia to win the World Cup, would have beaten the current Test side of India in a Test match at the latter’s home.

“With bowlers like (Chaminda) Vaas and Murali (Muttiah Muralitharan), that team of mine would have beaten India in India in three days.” He expressed, as the Telegraph reported.

Ranatunga cracked just 384 runs in 19 Test innings at an average of 20,21 in India at the best score of 59. The leading wicket-taker of the format also struggled in this country, with just 40 wickets in 14 innings at an average of 45.45 and a strike rate of 86.23.

India’s defeat shocked the world

The last Test victory for New Zealand in India came in 1988, as November’s result was a shocker for the entire world. For the very first time, the blue brigade got a whitewashed Test series defeat at home in their history.

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A series win against Bangladesh was their 18th consecutive red-ball series victory at home. The previous record was Australia’s 10 twice, first between November 1994 to November 2000 and later from July 2004 to November 2008.

Both Rohit and Virat Kohli struggled with the bat against the Blackcaps. The former cracked 91 runs in six innings, while the Delhi-born grabbed 93 runs in six innings. Their next home red-ball series will be against South Africa before they face West Indies at home. This will be another opportunity for them to do well in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27.