3 striking similarities between India's 2-0 series defeats to New Zealand in 2002 and 2020
.After winning their first seven matches in the 2019-21 ICC Test Championship - which involved a 2-0 series win in the West Indies, a 3-0 home win over South Africa, and a 2-0 home win over Bangladesh - Team India faltered in their fourth series.
Traditionally, India have struggled to win matches in New Zealand, sometimes due to the exaggerated swing on green tops, and at other times due to demons in the heads rather than in the pitches. Both of those things proved to be true in some measure on the 2020 tour.
Embarking on their 10th Test series in the picturesque country since a 3-1 win on their first tour in 1967-68 (where the visitors won matches in Dunedin, Christchurch and Auckland while losing the third test in Wellington), India fell to defeats in the matches in Wellington and Christchurch. That marked the sixth time India lost a Test series in New Zealand, with two series drawn and two won (1967-68 and 2008-09).
On that note, let us have a look at three amazing similarities between India's 2-0 series defeats in New Zealand in 2002-03 and 2019-20:
#1 India lost the toss and batted first in all 4 matches
.During the 2002-03 tour, India batted first after losing the toss in the first match in Wellington, and were bowled out for a sub-200 total (161).
Also see – PSL points table
18 years later, in the first Test of the 2019-20 tour in Wellington, the visitors were skittled out for 165 after losing the toss. India ended up losing both matches by 10 wickets.
In the second Test of the two series, India again lost the toss on each occasion. They slumped to four- and seven-wicket defeats respectively to lose each series by the identical margin of 2-0.