Virat Kohli Wasn't The Only One To Struggle In New Zealand: Mike Hesson

New Zealand’s former coach Mike Hesson has opened up on Virat Kohli and the Indian team’s recent visit to New Zealand. India whitewashed the Kiwis in the T20I series but the BlackCaps avenged their defeat in style by clean sweeping the Men in Blue in the ODIs and Test series.

Although India failed miserably in the Test series, Mike Hesson opines that India was the best team to face the Kiwis in such conditions. Also, Hesson believes that Virat Kohli wasn’t the only Indian batsman who was fazed by the Kiwi bowlers and that all the Indian batsmen couldn’t deliver on the big stage.

Mike Hesson Opens Up On The India-New Zealand Test Series

“I thought India are probably be the best equipped to have travelled to New Zealand, but the conditions were challenging,” Hesson told the Mumbai Mirror. “They weren’t ridiculous in any means, and they were challenging in both games (in the two Tests which India lost),” Hesson added.

“The New Zealand conditions were challenging for everybody, especially in the first innings. Things certainly got easy later on. The first innings was challenging for anyone coming from overseas,” he said.

India had batted first in both Tests and Hesson said that was an important factor as conditions got better as the matches wore on.

Virat Kohli Wasn’t The Lone Failure: Mike Hesson

Hardly any Indian batsman made a mark in the series, including captain and second-ranked Test batsman in the world Virat Kohli. Hesson feels that Kohli and the others simply didn’t get any time to adjust to the conditions.

Kohli had the worst series as a captain with the bat in the recently-concluded India-New Zealand ODI series, as he could score only 75 runs in the three games he played. This was by far his poorest performance in a bilateral ODI series since his captaincy debut in the format.

His return to form is now long-awaited and spectators hoped for his comeback in the Test series. However, he was cheaply dismissed in all the four innings of both the Test matches. Kohli had scores of 2, 19, 3, and 14 in the four innings he played during the Test series. However, Mike Hesson, believes that Kohli wasn’t the only Indian batsmen fazed by the Kiwi challenge.

“When the ball seams, there is very little time to adjust. You need time to adjust your technique. He certainly was not the only one (to have struggled). Also, New Zealand’s plans for Virat were exceptional. New Zealand have had the best of attacks for a long time and they challenged the Indians,” he said.

Team India lost its first game in Test cricket since the inception of the ICC World Test Championship in the recently concluded India-New Zealand series. Before this series, team India had won seven games on the trot since the beginning of the Test championship. This was also India’s first Test series loss since the inception of the Championship. India will now return to red-ball cricket six months later when the Men in Blue tour Australia.

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