Mumbai: The fortress had been breached already. On Sunday, it just crumbled to the ground with the Indian dressing room sitting stone-faced, trying to process a fall so spectacular that nobody saw it coming.
For the first time in their Test history, which goes back to 1933, the ‘Tigers’ at home had been whitewashed in a series of three or more games.
The humiliation was inflicted by New Zealand, a side that landed here after being thrashed 0-2 by a Sri Lankan team that is in transition. The Black Caps were also without their biggest batting star — Kane Williamson, thanks to injury.
Yet, it was a full-strength India that looked confused and short of preparation throughout a rubber they were expected to win and win comfortably at that.
The 25-run loss in the third Test in front of a buzzing Wankhede crowd, that just a few months ago feted a T20 world champion Indian side, was a stunning reminder of how fortunes swing wildly in sport.
Having already conceded the series 0-2, the Indians should have been able to pull one back. It wasn’t an unfair expectation, the chase was a mere 147 runs but it was on a track that looked like a minefield to the entire home line-up except Rishabh Pant (64).
On Sunday, all Pant needed or wanted was for someone to hang in there. Nobody seemed capable.
From Virat Kohli to skipper Rohit Sharma to Shubman Gill to Sarfaraz Khan, none looked to have learnt their lessons.
Five key wickets were lost for a mere 16 runs at the start of an embarrassing collapse with the Jogeshwari’s very own Ajaz Patel making them dance to his tunes for a haul of 11 wickets in the match.
The left-arm wpinner now has a staggering 25 Test wickets at the Wankhede in just two matches, making him the most successful overseas bowler at the venue after the great Ian Botham (22).
“Something like this will be a very low point of my career and I take full responsibility for it. With the bat, I was not good enough,” a desolate Rohit admitted in the post-match press conference struggling to explain clearly just what has gone so wrong with this team.
Coach Gautam Gambhir, who has remained bullish up until now, will certainly have a few questions to answer going forward if the tide does not turn dramatically in Australia, starting November 22.
With this truly humbling result, the Indians were thrown off the top position in the World Test Championship points table. A spot in the final next summer, which once seemed quite certain, will now have to be fought for and that too quite vigorously.
It is the first time that an Indian team has been whitewashed in a three-match series. The last time India suffered a humiliation of this scale was more than two decades ago in 2000 when it lost 0-2 to South Africa.
Interestingly, a World Cup-winning stalwart in Kapil Dev was in charge of the team as head coach even at that time. That result had ended the great Sachin Tendulkar’s run as captain of the team and Kapil’s tenure as coach.
What happens after the current loss will be eagerly watched.
Chase gone wrong and Pant heroics
With 55 runs needed in the post lunch session and five wickets intact, India’s hopes rested on Pant but he ended up falling to a contentious third-umpire call.
It ended a heroic push-back from the fearless man, who pulled the side out of a rut after it had ben reduced to 29 for five.
India’s ineptness had exerted pressure on Pant, who could not have responded any better against the odds until the ghosts of inaccurate technology in the game arrived to haunt him and India.
Pant had belittled every challenge that New Zealand threw at him, blasting nine fours and a six to make 64 from only 57 balls.
Having not taken a review earlier in the morning session for a leg-before, New Zealand burned one when they took against Pant for a caught-behind but the replays showed Patel’s delivery in the 22nd over had neither been in contact with the bat or the gloves.
But on the next, Pant was contentiously adjudged out caught-behind by third umpire. DRS replays showed a tiny spike, which Pant felt was the sound of his bat brushing the pads, but former Australia player and third umpire Paul Reiffel ruled it against the Indian.
Until he fell to Patel for his fifth wicket in the innings and 10th in the match, Pant had thoroughly dominated the New Zealand spinner, clobbering five fours and a six to collect 34 runs off his 27 deliveries.
For yet another instance, captain Rohit’s ultra-aggressive approach to take on the bowlers, when a calculated approach was required in a tricky situation, had him walking back and perhaps for the last time at his home turf.
Rohit’s (11) erroneous attempt to play his signature pull shot off Matt Henry on a delivery which was barely waist-high led to his fall.
As soon as Rohit’s top edge went up, Henry broke into celebration knowing it was headed towards Glenn Phillips – one of the best fielders – who ran behind from midwicket to take a fine catch.
Coming off a fine 146-ball 90, Gill shouldered arms on a delivery from Patel (4/43) expecting the ball to turn away but it straightened to crash into his off-stump.
Kohli (1) marched onto the ground once again with his bat trained on his shoulder, perhaps to exude confidence, but he could not reach the pitch of a floated delivery which took the edge of his bat to the first slip.
From the other end, Yashasvi Jaiswal (5) watched this surrender and he too became a part of it when he was beaten by Phillips (3/42) for a leg-before.
Sarfaraz (0) went for a pre-meditated sweep shot on the first ball for the second time in the Test and paid a heavy price too, top edging it for Rachin Ravindra to move in from deep square leg and complete a pair for the batter.