India’s brilliant decade-long unbeaten streak of Test series wins at home was shattered by New Zealand, who won the second Test in Pune on October 26, 2024, to go 2-0 up in the three-match series.
Tom Latham had won the toss and chosen to bat first on a rank turner in Pune. Devon Conway (76) and Rachin Ravindra (65), with help from Mitchell Santner (33), took New Zealand to 259 in 1st innings. For India, Washington Sundar took 7/59 while Ravi Ashwin took three wickets.
India struggled in the first innings, with Ravindra Jadeja (38), Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Shubman Gill (30 runs each) leading the way as the hosts were bowled out for 156. Mitchell Santner chose 7/53 for New Zealand.
With a 103-run lead, Kiwi skipper Tom Latham led from the front, scoring 86 runs, while Tom Blundell (41) and Glenn Phillips (48*) helped New Zealand to 255 runs. Sundar added four wickets to his total as India needed 359 runs to win the Test and tie the series.
Yashasvi Jaiswal top scored for India with 77 runs, while Ravindra Jadeja made 42 as India crumbled against some excellent spin bowling for just 245 runs. India lost the Test by 113 runs as Mitchell Santner picked 6/104 and completed 13 wickets in the match, his best bowling figures in Tests ever.
With this Test win, New Zealand completed their first-ever Test series win in India and ended India’s excellent Test series win record. India lost a Test series at home for the first time since 2012 and this loss has also hurt their chances of qualifying for the WTC 2025 final.
With the series defeat, India's record of 18 consecutive bilateral home series wins has come to an end - the longest such sequence for any team.
Meanwhile, Indian team captain Rohit Sharma looked extremely dejected after the Pune Test loss. He stated that this was not expected by the Indian team management. He also added that India didn’t bat well enough on this pitch.
“Disappointing. It's not what we expected. Got to give credit to NZ - they played better than us. We failed to capitalize on certain moments. We failed to respond to those challenges. And we sit here today. Didn't think we batted well enough to get runs on the board. You've got to pick 20 wickets to win, yes, but batters have to put runs on the board. Was a great fightback to restrict them to 250-odd but we knew it was going to be challenging. When they started off, they were 200/3 and for us to come back and get them bowled out for 259 was a great effort. Wasn't a pitch where a lot was happening.
We just didn't bat well enough. Things would've been slightly different had we got a bit closer in the first innings. We want to show up well at Wankhede and try and win that Test. It's a collective failure. I'm not somebody who would blame just the batters or the bowlers. We will come out with better intent, better ideas, and better methods at Wankhede,” Rohit stated at the post-match presentation.
The third and final Test will be played in Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai from November 1 onwards.
