New Zealand v India, 2020: 3 key reasons why India lost the ODI series

India haven't won a bilateral ODI series in New Zealand in 11 years and it looked like the record was about to be rewritten as Virat Kohli’s men were flying high after a 0-5 whitewash in the recently concluded T20I series.

But one of the famous cliches -- cricket is a great leveller -- came true as the hosts took an unassailable 2-0 lead with one more match to go. New Zealand have had a terrific run in this format and once again raised their standards to topple a very confident Indian side.

Even though Kohli said that ODI format is not too relevant in this calendar year, this series loss, which is India’s first in any format since the semi-final loss in 2019 World Cup would have come as a surprise and could cause an impact in the Test series to follow.

So where exactly did the men in blue go wrong? Let us look at the three key reasons why India are down 0-2.

#1 Team combination

Kedhar Jadhav in the New Zealand v India match in Hamilton

The inclusion of Kedhar Jadhav in the playing XI seems a strange one because of a couple of reasons. One, he might not be in the the scheme of things when the 2023 World Cup comes along and two, his part time off-spin, for which he is supposed to be included will not be effective on good batting tracks and small grounds.

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The reason given for Jadhav’s inclusion by captain Virat Kohli is that he can offer some part time off-spin bowling but the fact that he hasn’t been called upon in both the games makes the decision look strange.

With Jadeja in great form with the bat, the left hander could easily be slotted in at No 6 and that means India can go in with extra specialist bowler, which is very important in these conditions. The other way to go about is to include Manish Pandey which could have given the right hander more experience going forward.

#2 Absence of opening stands

India has had to do without the solid opening stands it is accustomed to

One of India’s greatest openers of all time and currently one of the best batsman in white ball cricket, Rohit Sharma had to miss the entire ODI and Test series because of a calf injury and already the team is missing him at the top of the order.

India have been winning majority of games in the recent past because of the contributions of their top order that includes Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, and Virat Kohli. With both the regular openers missing this series, all the onus fell on the captain, who is strangely going through some low scores which we are not used to seeing.

Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal made their ODI debuts together in the first ODI while the think tank have decided to give KL Rahul a role in the middle-order as a wicket-keeper batsman. Even though the likes of Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul have been scoring runs; India is surely missing the quality of Rohit Sharma.

#3 Spinners ineffective in the middle overs

Kuldep Yadav was carted around by the Kiwis — Kuldeep Yadav was carted around by the Kiwis

The same bowling attack which was doing really well in the T20I series have been very ordinary in the ODI series so far. After scoring 347 in the first game, bowlers couldn't defend a mammoth score as they bowled 29 extras that included 24 wides and a no ball, which is far too many for an international side.

Not too long ago, Virat Kohli was a fan of wrist spin in this format as he played both left-arm chinaman Kuldeep Yadav and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal as wicket taking options in the middle overs.

Since the hammering against England in the World Cup, Kohli has been reluctant to use both the wrist spinners together and brought in the left-arm orthodox spin of Ravindra Jadeja to get more control during the middle phase of the game.

Kuldeep Yadav was played in the first game and he was hammered by the Kiwi batsman for 84 runs and was replaced by Yuzvendra Chahal in the second but the leg spinner too went for 58 runs in his 10 overs.