Indian cricket's home truths

Virat Kohli, the modern-day batting virtuoso, has a star-studded resume – one that also includes being part of two of India's three lowest-ever scores in Test cricket. As the forlorn captain, he was in the thick of action when his team suffered its lowest-ever score – 36 all out against Australia in Adelaide four years ago.

- VISHAL MENON

Virat Kohli, the modern-day batting virtuoso, has a star-studded resume – one that also includes being part of two of India's three lowest-ever scores in Test cricket. As the forlorn captain, he was in the thick of action when his team suffered its lowest-ever score – 36 all out against Australia in Adelaide four years ago. Indian batters sank to the depths of misery yet again in the just concluded Test series against New Zealand.

Under the cloudy forenoon skies in Bengaluru last month, New Zealand's pace trio comprising Tim Southee, Matt Henry and Will O'Rourke ran through India's batting like a hot knife through butter. India could only muster 46, their lowest tally at home. They did not have the stomach for a fight in the subsequent Test match in Pune as well.

On a raging turner, New Zealand's left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner prised open India's vaulted batting, scalping 13 wickets. Things came to boil in the third Test in Mumbai, when the hosts, in pursuit of 147, were dismissed for 121.

New Zealand, never counted among the poster boys of international cricket, exposed India's fragility, hubris, and incompetence, to notch up a scarcely believable 3-0 triumph. In doing so, they ended India's 12-year, 18-series impregnable domination at home.