India fumble early shot at redemption in Mumbai

"I was afraid of this."

"I had personally thought that as long as I played in India, I didn't want to lose a single series. But this also happened. So, now I haven't thought in my mind that I don't want to do this [or that]. Whatever I think about, it happens suddenly," a candid Ravindra Jadeja admitted while asked to reflect on the series.

It's a line of thought that could be pervading the minds of the Indian top-order as well. Down 0-2 in the series, and shouldering much of the blame, the first day in Mumbai offered a shot at redemption. They were on course to attain it, until the last 13 minutes of play.

A 53-run stand for the second wicket ended when a well-set Yashasivi Jaiswal missed a reverse sweep with very little left to play in the day. In a year where he has scored over 1000 Test runs, this series has been a big step-down. With a highest score of 77 in five innings, this was the third time he had fallen in the thirties in the series. The merit and the timing of the shot will be up for debate but there is no doubting that India desperately needed more from him. What it set about instead was a bundle of blunders.

The nightwatchman that India opted for in Mohammad Siraj was questionable from the outset given that he was coming in to face a left-arm spinner on a pitch offering turn from the straight. As luck would have it, Siraj was struck plumb in front first ball but went on to review the decision whilst consulting his partner Shubman Gill. With one out of India's three reviews burnt, the hosts brought in Virat Kohli who had been padded up even before Siraj walked in. Kohli has been hard at work to regain lost form, and came in to face left-arm spin from both ends as New Zealand brought on Rachin Ravindra. He saw off the hat-trick ball with solid defense and got off the mark by putting away a friendly full toss.

An innings earlier, in Pune, Kohli had been in the middle of a quick single that saw his partner Rishabh Pant get run-out. That was India's second wicket lost in the space of six balls, which then went on to trigger a collapse that saw them lose four for just 40 runs. A similar call for a quick run on Friday led to his own demise, as he fell short despite a desperate dive he put in, and had to trudge back with his head bowed down. Three wickets in seven balls had undone whatever good work India had put in earlier in the day, correcting mistakes done in the past.

Jadeja had been the architect of that fightback on a hot, humid afternoon. After breaking through a stubborn 87-run stand for the third wicket after a hard toil, he had plopped himself on Kohli nearby, heaving a sigh of relief. The humidity was not just taking a toll on the players physically but the sweat was a threat to performing their skills.

"It was very challenging. There was a time when I couldn't even hold the ball. But this is how it is at the international level. You have to prepare for these conditions, and you know that when you come to practice, this was the condition even then. So as a player you know what's going to happen in the match. So, mentally, I was ready that this was going to happen. I can't give you an excuse as to why this is happening. I tried to keep my hands and the ball as dry as possible. It was a little difficult to grip the ball," explained Jadeja.

That wicket of Will Young by Jadeja had offered India a chance to keep pushing until they broke the door open by bundling out New Zealand for 235. It was a total that India would have taken after losing the toss, and an indication of them regaining lost ground after the first two Tests.

But as he would have it, Jadeja was left to defend yet another top-order collapse at the press conference at the end of the day. "Only an individual player can tell what's going on in their mind. Obviously it feels like if you're down 2-0 in the series, that's why you panicked and you made a mistake. But when you keep winning and when you're ahead 2-0, then everyone says, 'It's okay, it happens'. It doesn't seem so important.

"But when you're down in the series, even small things always seems big. In a team game, if there's a mistake up there (top-order)... the batters who are coming in tomorrow, by adding 6 wickets, we will do as well as we can to score 230 or more runs. We will do as well as we can with the batting in the first innings so that it will be easy for us in the second innings," he said.

Unlike Bengaluru or Pune, these unforced errors would be harder to explain or work towards correcting. They might still get a chance to do it in the second innings, but before that they would rely on Jadeja and the batters around him in the lower-order to come to their rescue once again.