Mumbai (Maharashtra): After India's historic Test series defeat at home, India head coach Gautam Gambhir reflected on Men in Blue's poor outings in the first two Tests of the three-match series against New Zealand. Gambhir pointed out the reasons and said that it is because of the pressure of the World Test Championship (WTC) points.
Men in Blue will be playing for their pride as they take on Kiwis in the third Test at the iconic Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. With the hosts already being 0-2 down and having endured their first series loss in Tests at home in 12 years, they will be aiming to play out of their skins to avoid an embarrassing whitewash. Notably, India has never got whitewashed at home in the history of cricket. It is also worth noting that when these two teams played against each other at the Wankhede Stadium in 2021, New Zealand's left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel claimed all ten wickets in an innings.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Gambhir said that every game is important for him in the context of the WTC final. He added that teams are losing at home Tests because of the pressure of T20 cricket.
Memories in Mumbai! ✍️
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Ajaz Patel returns to Wankhede Stadium for the first time since taking the best Test figures at the ground (10-119) last time the team faced India in a Test in Mumbai, in 2021. #INDvNZ #CricketNation pic.twitter.com/iMbiaKswMN
"For me, WTC points are very important. Every Test match is important. There are no dead rubbers anymore. It has a lot to do with T20 cricket. Gone are the days of draws because the quality of batters and hitting has gone up. Matches will be more result-oriented now. It is the combination of being under pressure due to WTC points and T20I cricket," Gambhir said.
📍 Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
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Gearing 🆙 for the 3rd and Final #INDvNZ Test 👌👌#TeamIndia | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/M9ZNLkQCsQ
In the second Test, NZ opted to bat first and half-centuries from Devon Conway (76) and Rachin Ravindra (65) helped the Kiwis reach 259 after Washington Sundar (7/59) delivered an incredible comeback spell to destroy the Kiwi middle order.
In their first innings, India posted just 156 runs, with spinner Mitchell Santner taking 7/53 and Ravindra Jadeja top-scoring with 38 runs. In their second innings, with the help of skipper Tom Latham's 86, NZ posted 255/10, with Washington picking four wickets and Ravindra Jadeja getting three.
In the run chase of 359 runs, India was skittled out for 245, despite a fight put on by Yashasvi Jaiswal (77). India lost by 114 runs and NZ won the series 2-0. NZ had won the first Test by eight wickets.
India Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Dhruv Jurel, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, KL Rahul.
