Home blues: Outbatted, outbowled, outsmarted and outplayed yet again

India crash to their biggest ever defeat as South Africa win by 408 runs in Guwahati

- Somshuvra Laha

This wasn'ta defeat, this was abject surrender. Ona fifth day pitch that was worn down but still had runs in it, againsta team that didn’t feature Kagiso Rabada but were lionhearted. With barely any preparation, leapfrogging from one white-ball series to another, a result everyone feared for... has happened.

Outbatted, outbowled, out-planned, pretty much outsmarted by every metric, India can't even tell themselves they didn’t see it coming

This defeat has deja vu written all over it, 2000 being the last time India had lost 0-2 to South Africa at home. Butas it turned out, there was light at the end of that tunnel within a year. When will another one come, if it comes at all?

You might not want to hear it, but this feels like a darker shade of that darkness. At home, throughout the 2010s, India were used to cantering to wins with a handicap.

Five batters at home, bonus if Wriddhiman Saha scored, India were always sorted. Now India are summoning bits-and-pieces players who can neither bat nor bowl, playing musical chairs with the batting order and basically shooting themselves in both their feet. The result is for everyone to see.

Take out the West Indies and Bangladesh tours as well as the Bengaluru Test against New Zealand last year, and India haven't been able to score 300 in an innings at home since Gautam Gambhir took over as coach after the T20 World Cup win.