India will play two Tests in New Zealand from November 19 onwards.
Manjrekar’s words came after India was bowled out for just 89 runs in chasing 333 in the recent fourth ODI against New Zealand in Mount Maunganui on November 13. India’s 244-run loss was the second biggest in ODI format, after their 245-run loss to Sri Lanka in 2000 in Sharjah.
"The most important thing to determine if a country is great at cricket is to gauge the depth of their abilities, performance, and prowess. For that, you have to look at all three formats and see how they do in all three. With India, the mild concern that one must nip in the bud is that they've done well in T20s. But as the format gets longer and longer, the 50-over World Cup, it's been a while; the 2011 edition was the last time they won it, and they've never won the World Test Championship. And the performance we saw in the 4th ODI showed that as the format gets longer, India gets slightly exposed,” Manjrekar said in a video on his Instagram.
However, the short-form records of India need not be explained further, considering that they have won the T20 World Cup twice consecutively in 2024 and 2026. The 50-over format has given India two World Cups to their credit, but not since 2011, whereas India has been in two World Test Championship finals in 2021 and 2023.
Manjrekar stated that the upcoming two-test series against New Zealand will be a good place to judge the health of the Indian cricket team. The tour proved to be a mixed bag of results. India won the T20I series 3-2 after New Zealand managed to win the last two games; then India went on to clinch a 2-0 lead in the ODI series with wins at Eden Park and Wellington, only to lose comprehensively to India in the fourth ODI game at Bay Oval.
"The IPL and India's T20 cricket are in a good place. But ODIs and tests will truly show where India is as a cricketing nation and whether it's up there with Australia, who are doing well in tests as well as T20s and, to an extent, ODIs. That has to be the goal and vision for Indian cricket. The longer the format, the better it should be in India, just as in-depth as a cricketing nation. That is why the two Tests in New Zealand will truly show India's health in cricket. It's only two Tests, but it'll tell us something very important," said Manjrekar.
The first Test runs from November 19 to 23 at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, and the second from November 27 to December 1 at Hagley Oval in Christchurch.