India VS New Zealand: Three reasons for the defeat of the Men in Blue in the first ODI

Given that a 50-over World Cup is coming in a year, the focus on the format will naturally be more, which is why India’s loss to New Zealand in the first ODI will raise a few eyebrows. 

With that in mind, here are three primary reasons for India ending up on the losing side – and potential lessons for the Men in Blue to take into what will now be a must-win second ODI. 

Confusing batting order – A quick look at India’s top 6 consisting of Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav and Sanju Samson makes one thing clear. At least one batsman will be playing out of position, and that player will be most affected. 

In this match, the honor of playing well out of position fell to Suryakumar Yadav. The man who’s made it a habit of winning India matches from the number 4 position was brought in at number 5 after the top 4 had done an excellent job. 

However, his innings of 4 off three balls was a turning point for the worse, as India would have been setting a total of around 350 if not for his early dismissal. Pant also struggles, as he accounted for just 15 runs before being dismissed. 

Expensive bowling – A quick look at India’s bowling line-up made one thing clear – there was the potential for someone to leak a few extra runs. However, what happened was that all but one bowler was expensive. 

Arshdeep Singh finished his quota of overs at an economy rate of 8.3 – expensive even in T20Is – and didn’t even bowl his full quota of overs. Shardul Thakur went for 63 runs in his nine overs, and Umran Malik, making his ODI debut, got two wickets but went for 66 runs. Deepak Chahar, who has recently struggled with injuries, went for 67 runs. 

The only bowler who emerged with some economic credit was Washington Sundar, who bowled ten overs at an economy of 4.2, But that matters little when the other bowlers leak runs. 

New Zealand’s experienced batting: Unlike India, New Zealand generally use more or less the same core of players, mainly due to their talent pool being less expensive than India’s. But in this case, it worked out well for the hosts, as their experienced players were the ones who made a difference for the team. 

Kane Williamson, whose approach in T20Is is often criticized, was in his element here – he scored 94 off 98 balls, perfect ODI innings. But the wrecker in chief was Tom Latham, a player with over 100 ODIs under his belt. And his hard-hitting proved the difference.