Not only did India's defeat to New Zealand in the second Test end a record winning streak in the former's home series, but it also jeopardized their chances of making a third consecutive World Test Championship (WTC) final. Rohit Sharma's side were largely expected to cruise to the 2025 WTC final, needing five wins and a draw to confirm a spot in the title clash going into their ongoing Test season.

Having hardly ever been properly challenged by any team apart from Australia and England at home in Test matches since 2012, it was seen as a foregone conclusion that India would win all five of the games they were scheduled to play at home before embarking on their five-match tour of Australia. However, their shocking losses to New Zealand in the first two Tests of the three-match series, which was Gautam Gambhir's first as head coach of the Indian team, has thrown a spanner in the works. New Zealand had not defeated India in a Test match in India for 36 years before the first match in Bengaluru and they had never won a Test series in the country before the second in Pune.

It means that although India have now lost the series, they need to somehow dust themselves off and try to win the third Test in order to avoid putting their chances in further jeopardy, and to avoid the humiliation of being whitewashed at home. Former India captain and head coach Anil Kumble said that India have effectively made it harder for themselves to reach the WTC final.

“I think that's the beauty about WTC. I know the series is done for India, but then every Test match is equally important. They have obviously made it harder for themselves,” Kumble said on Jio Cinema. “At the start of the series, we spoke about getting five wins for you to really sail into the championship final. But now if you need those four wins in the next six matches, that becomes even tougher because the one is at the Wankede Stadium against this extremely confident New Zealand side and then five against Australia in Australia.”

‘Bowling will have its challenges throughout’

Kumble said that India may have won on their last two tours of Australia but this series comes with the added pressure of reaching the WTC Final alongwith the fact that their batters have a lot of work to do. India's batting collapses were a huge reason as to why they lost the first two Tests to New Zealand.

"I know India has done really well in the last two series that they played in Australia but this time it's all the more tougher because India have to qualify, and they have to really get their act together. The batting has been disappointing. The bowling will have its challenges right throughout. The reason that India is on the top there is because Indian bowlers have been able to pick up those 20 wickets. The batting needs to come together and start getting those runs," he further added.

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