New Zealand won World Test Championship by defeating India by 8 wickets in Southampton Test. The Test was for five days beginning 18/6/2021 with 23/6/2021 kept as reserve day in case of no play on a day. There was no play on 18/6/2021 and reserve day came to play. On 19/6/2021 New Zealand Captain Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to field. Rain interrupted play. India ended the day 146/3.
On 20/6/2021 India 217 all out. New Zealand 101/2. No play on 21/6/2021 due to rain.
On 22/6/2021 New Zealand 249 all out, first Innings lead of 32 runs. India ended the day 64/2, 32 runs more than New Zealand.
On 23/6/2021 India 170 all out. New Zealand scored 140/2 and won the Championship.
India’s batting failed. Virat Kohli said “The mindset has to be to score runs and find ways to score runs. You can’t be too worried about getting out because you are bringing the bowler into the game completely and not moving the game forward.”
“We will not wait for a year or so and have to plan ahead… Bring in right people who have right mindset to perform.”
The target seems to be Cheteshwar Pujara who scored 8 runs off 54 balls in first Innings and 15 runs off 80 runs in second Innings. His strike rate is low. He is not in ODI and T20I teams. However, Tests do not have required run rate to win and they can end in draw. If Southampton Test had ended in draw India and New Zealand would have been joint champions. Besides other batsmen did not do will in Southampton Test. Virat Kohli scored 44 in first Innings. Ajinkya Rahane was highest scorer with 49. Virat Kohli scored 13 in second Innings. Rishabh Pant was highest scorer with 41.
In Australia, under Virat Kohli’s captaincy India were 36 all out in second Innings and lost the first Test. Virat Kohli returned to India. Ajinkya Rahane was the captain for other three Tests and India won two and one was draw. Indian can win abroad without Virat Kohli as captain and player. BCCI selection committee comprising of Chetan Sharma (Chairman), Abey Kuruvilla, Debashish Mohanty, Harvinder Singh and Sunil Joshi should consider that possibility.