Anil Kumble, the legendary leg-spinner of India and former head coach, has expressed serious concerns about the batting struggles of the team in their 3-0 Test series loss to New Zealand. He highlighted that the primary challenge for the Rohit Sharma-led side is coming to terms with the fact that there is a problem to be resolved in the batting department. Chasing 147 for a win at the Wankhede Stadium, India were bowled out for 121, as they slumped to being clean swept in a Test series at home for the first time since 1999/2000.
Rishabh Pant’s counterattacking 57-ball 64 being the only notable effort in another sorry batting performance from the hosts’. It didn’t also help India that captain Rohit Sharma (91 runs in six innings) and Virat Kohli (93 runs in six innings) couldn’t get big runs in the series, as New Zealand exposed India’s frailties in batting against spin in spin-friendly conditions.
“This has consistently happened over the last three Test matches. Whenever the spinners come on, there hasn’t been a noticeable improvement from one game to the next. A couple of players have made certain adjustments, which has helped in the batting lineup, but collectively, as a batting unit, they haven’t been able to avoid those collapses.
“This has happened far too often in a single session, which is a concern. For this lineup to say, ‘There’s nothing wrong’—I think there’s something seriously wrong here. The most challenging part is accepting that there’s a problem. I’m sure that when this Indian team sits down to introspect, they’ll recognize that there is indeed a serious issue that needs to be addressed,” said Kumble on JioCinema and Sports18.
