3 reasons why New Zealand's Test series win in India is the greatest achievement by a visiting team in history
New Zealand secured their maiden Test series victory in India on Saturday (October 26). They pulled off a commanding win in the second Test of the three-match series at MCA Stadium in Pune.
The game saw the Black Caps side choose to bat first and post 259 in the first innings. Left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner then proved to be the wrecker-in-chief with seven wickets to decimate India for 156.
The visitors then set up a target of 359 for the Indian team. Although the hosts started positively through Yashasvi Jaiswal despite captain Rohit Sharma's failure, the rest of the batting unit fell like nine pins to lose the game by 113 runs.
Before the third Test begins on November 1 in Mumbai, let's take a look at three reasons why New Zealand's series win is the greatest by any visiting team in India.
#1 Ended India's 12-year-long dominance in home Tests
Apart from winning their first-ever Test series in India, New Zealand did the unthinkable by handing India their first home series loss since December 2012. The Indian team had lost 2-1 to England at that time.
Since then, India were on a roll with 18 consecutive Test series wins at home. This helped them remain the No. 1 Test team for five years and also progress to the World Test Championship (WTC) finals in 2021 and 2023.
Interestingly, only Australia have a better record, with 28 home series victories on the trot between 1992-93 and 2008-09.
#2 Dominating India on all fronts in back-to-back tests
Before this series, the last time India lost consecutive Tests was against England in 2012.
In the first Test, New Zealand pacers used overcast conditions to extract movement off the surface, and bundled out hosts for their lowest score of 46 in a home Test. In the end, New Zealand won the game by eight wickets.
After this loss, the Rohit Sharma-led side dug their grave by rolling out a rank turner in Pune. For utilizing the spin-friendly track, the Black Caps brought Mitchell Santner into the XI who destroyed the Indian batting attack.
The left-arm spinner returned with 13 wickets in the game. Interestingly, he had picked just 12 wickets in six Tests in Asia before the Pune game.
#3 Negated threat of Ravichandran Ashwin-Ravindra Jadeja in fine fashion
Despite bowling 25 overs in the second innings of the Pune Test, Ravichandran Ashwin returned with only two wickets and conceded 97 runs.
Meanwhile, Ravindra Jadeja bowled 18 overs in the first innings but went wicketless. Although he did pick up three wickets, they came at a cost of 70+ runs in the second innings.
Between the two home series defeats spanning 12 years, the duo of Ashwin and Jadeja scalped more than 500 wickets at an average of under 21. But New Zealand were able to pass the stern test against the experienced spin duo.