Why India look out of place at home

Struggling batters are just the tip of the problem confronting the hosts ahead of the 2nd Test in Guwahati

- Somshuvra Laha

It used to be ridiculously simple really: Make it count while batting, preferably once, before leaving it to the bowlers to wrap up the game.

That's how India had a 22-1 win loss record between 2015 and 2019. Something however has changed so dramatically since the pandemic that India’s record since 2020 now reads a baffling 16-7.

Putting a finger on the drastically reduced batting averages is the first instinct, but it’s also the domino effect of too many decisions going wrong. Never before have India looked so out of place at home.

‘An impulsive conclusion would be to frame this slide as a knee-jerk response to the transition that kicked in with the phasing out of Cheteshwar Pujara after the 2023 World Test Championship final and ended with the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma before the England tour this year.

But even within this period came six out of the seven losses so evidently it wasn’t about that. No one was spared the ignominy, especially Kohli who averaged a pedestrian 29.92 in 16 Tests since 2021, with just one hundred. In the five-year period before 2020? An average of 77.11, backed by 10 hundreds and a highest of 254*.