As I have often said before, the most disappointing thing is not the bad shots or the bad catching or even the bad calls or decision making by the captain and management. It is how "down" this side seems to get when things go against them. A far cry from the never say die side we had earlier that won us the BGT in 2021. Strangely enough, only the last 15-20 mins seemed like a regular passage of test match from an Indian side bowling when fields were set decently, bowlers bowled to the field and batsmen were challenged at least somewhat.
They just seem to expect some magic to happen when they are bowling and they are well behind in the game and when it doesn't happen within the first half hour or so, the shoulders and heads just drop, starting with Rohit. We saw it in the 2022 T20 WC semi, we saw it in the ODI WC final, we saw some of it in the WTC final in 2023 and we are seeing it now here. It is ok to have bad days as cricketers, yes, it sucks and the criticism, even here at CW, can be pretty bad but human beings are bound to make mistakes. Its the entire "all in" approach when in strife and not really trying to buckle down and keep the fight going that gets to me. It seems to be the one departure since Shastri quit as coach. In the whole Virat Vs Rohit captaincy debates, that is perhaps a factor that has been overlooked.
I definitely did feel we would bowl better and that the game was far from over inspite of the 103 run lead but the way the heads dropped when the close LBW was not given and then a few other breaks went the Kiwis way, shows this side just does not have the bottle for the long and hard fight. They are great front runners and they are great at coming back when the counter punch sticks, but much like Rocky in that loss to Lang in Rocky 3, this side just seems to go windless if the initial punches dont inflict the damage they expect it to. I honestly do not see anything other than a 150+ run win for NZ from here.
To their credit, I dont think the side have ever asked for any sort of pitches under anyone since the 2015 turners against RSA. And they have played in all sorts of conditions within India and kept winning. I think they just underestimated NZ, looked too far ahead in trying to make a positive play to win the test in Bangalore, made 2 stupid decisions, could not bat well enough as they had never prepared for the conditions to be like that and have been playing catch-up ever since. In a paradoxical way, our bowling at Southee and our batting against the second (and third) new ball in Bangalore is probably gonna be the reason we lose our home streak, than us playing poorly on a wicket that is aiding spin here. They underestimated and were complacent against NZ in Bangalore, overcompensated by going too aggressive on the spin option here and are now staring down a very humiliating series loss.