India gain series, but are still left with more questions than answers
Despite the win, finer questions still remain around the same recurring themes that have ailed India for a while now
In Tauranga, the Maori word for resting place, New Zealand’s seven-year streak was finally buried. India enter the Tests having pocketed both legs of the white-ball tour, their second ODI series win in a row after the slip-up in England. It appears to put the No.1 ranked team back on track as the road to the World Cup shortens.
Putting aside the statistical feat, described as a “great achievement” by Shreyas Iyer before he lifted the trophy, it’s difficult to ignore the holes that still exist. The year leading up to a World Cup is usually reserved for fine-tuning roles, finding the right balance of strengths, and sticking with the core unit.
Before embarking for New Zealand, Shubman Gill echoed the same mantra, insisting there was no time left for experimentation. He wanted to play with his first-choice players, having missed some of his main personnel against the West Indies. In that series, the bowling, replete with replacement picks, had taken a pasting on flat home pitches. It seemed to be the most pressing issue.
In New Zealand, the most encouraging signs have inarguably come through the pace attack.
With Arshdeep Singh and Gurnoor Brar, the bowling attack automatically bears a healthier look. The angle and early swing the left-armer lends is a valuable layer in these conditions, which coach Gautam Gambhir said would be like those on offer at the World Cup. In Brar, India have a middle-order bruiser who attacks on the hard length, gets a natural extra lift, and forces batters to contort in ugly shapes. The cohesion, even without Jasprit Bumrah, makes for a pretty encouraging sight.
Seamers bowling back of a length or shorter in the series
In more helpful conditions, Auqib Nabi and Anshul Kamboj have also proved to be much better bowlers. Their side-acts are useful reinforcements to diversify India’s options as the window gets shorter. The reliance on spin was so limited that India didn’t need to use one until the 36th over of New Zealand’s chase in the fifth ODI.
The real concerns lie elsewhere. After the game, Iyer said, “this wasn’t a series for batsmen”. The numbers said so too. Early movement had had a debilitating effect on both lineups. Aside from the fourth ODI, when New Zealand breached 300, there were five combined instances of either team being shot out for under 200. Across the series, none of the Indian batters aggregated even a 100 runs. Two of India’s rain-hit chases were won via DLS targets after encountering collapses. The combined average of their top-seven stood at 19.16, the second lowest for them in an ODI series of at least four matches.
In Mount Manganui, India hurtled to their second-biggest loss by runs after crumbling for 89 all out. Iyer put it down to excellent bowling and failing to adjust to the changed nature of the pitch under lights. Two days later, batting under the sun, they pushed that total to 209.
The pre-series focus sat firmly on India’s two highly-experienced powerhouses. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have now been on four bilateral tours to New Zealand. No Indian players have featured in as many bilateral games in the country. Kohli expertly anchored the first chase, but failed to fire thrice after that. Rohit, too, crossed double-digits only once. Their potential last dance in New Zealand eventually turned out to be a damp squib.
So much for not tweaking around either. Gill and KL Rahul didn’t feature in the last two games, forcing India to alter the shape of their top-order. Ishan Kishan has played everywhere from 3-6 this year, while Ruturaj Gaikwad became India’s fourth opening option of the year as a fill-in for Gill. There’s still no clear answer on who their backup opener could be. Jaiswal, snubbed for their ODIs, complicated it further by crunching back-to-back hundreds in the shadow ‘A’ first-class series.
Even beyond the top-three, the sharp contrast in home versus away performances was only re-emphasised on this tour.
India’s middle-order (4-7) post CT 2025
From a larger lens, the batting wasn’t flattened by any one singular form of attack. After seeing them flounder to 89 all out, Gambhir laid bare Indian batters’ concerning inability to adjust to “alien” conditions. The wrecker that night was Matt Henry, fiddling between the full-length and length markers. A week before that, they had been battered by peppering them in the short and back-of-length channels. In Gambhir’s words, these are conditions that are close to what the World Cup will offer.
Surprisingly, when asked about the takeaways from this series ahead of the marquee event, Iyer went the other way, saying “we’re in New Zealand, we can’t compare with South Africa. We don’t know what will happen. There’s still a year to go. The weather will be different”.
He re-emphasised that “batting did not work, neither for them, nor for us. In bowling, both them and we did well”.
Those two aspects aside, India also fell woefully short in the fielding department: nine dropped catches and 16 misfields summarised that aspect of their series. The catching efficiency stood at 75 per cent. The hosts fared better in every metric
It proved to be a big letdown in the fourth ODI, when Will Young, helped early by two reprieves, struck a match-defining 125. Through the series, the culprits ranged from Kohli, Rohit and Gill to rookies like Yash Thakur.
It brings back the scrutiny that followed their similarly poor showings on the UK tour. Now, under a new fielding coach, the aspect still feels like a work in progress.
Team-wise fielding stats since 2025 (Full Members)
Despite these concerns that sorely stick out, India have accomplished their primary mission according to their stand-in skipper. Iyer described himself as “absolutely ecstatic” in the press conference: “The most important thing for us was to win the series. We don’t think much about the rest”.
In SENA countries, this is only India’s third series win in nine attempts. But even with a stellar starcast, this isn’t India’s perfect ODI side too. They’re still without Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, two of their biggest white-ball matchwinners, and haven’t necessarily found suitable replacements either, in case those two names aren’t able to make it for any reason. And finer questions still remain around the same recurring themes that have ailed them for a while now.
