India’s historic collapse vs NZ: Wtf happened?

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Aakriti Anand & Raghav Bikhchandani

Where’s my Big Story?

We are pushing back our Big Story edition—typically published on Monday. We instead will publish a special Big Story edition on Wednesday—with a Diwali themed lead, a mega-quiz with a special prize—and bonus read and watch lists to keep you entertained during the holidays.

India’s historic collapse vs NZ: Wtf happened?

New Zealand clinched the Test series against India—with a massive win at Pune on Saturday. They are up 2-0 in the three-match series. Why this is huge: India has not lost a Test series at home since England defeated the MS Dhoni—led team 2-1 in 2012. Since then, 18 bilateral series have been won—the latest against Bangladesh in September. That’s 42 wins, seven draws, and just four losses out of 53 Tests.

The worst bit: These were not narrow defeats. The boys in blue were indisputably walloped—by the Kiwis, who were on a five-match dry streak and without their best batter Kane Williamson. Also: They had never won a Test series in India before—the win in Bengaluru was their first since 1988.

Test match #1: India was bowled out for 46 runs, the lowest ever at home. OTOH, NZ scored––wait for it!—402, led by a Rachin Ravindra century. The only folks delighted: Rachin’s Bengaluru thatha/paati—and maybe Bharatiya patriots—who swelled with pride when he later said:

I do not necessarily play in the traditional style of Westerners who come over here. I have Indian heritage and have played a lot of cricket in India, which has helped me develop those game plans.

But nothing could put lipstick on this pig. In the end, we lost by eight wickets. You can see Rachin celebrate his hundred below.

Test match #2: To save India from looming embarrassment, Indian officials prepared a spin-friendly pitch in Pune. But it ended up being a boon to Mitchell Santner instead. The left-arm spinner took 13 wickets across the two Indian innings. Adding to the misfortune: Santner was a last-minute sub for the injured pacer Matt Henry. In the end, NZ won by 113 runs—with a wry smile from Santner as he cleaned up Sarfaraz Khan’s stumps—as you can see here:

Kaun banega scapegoat? As always in Indian cricket, the search for the great Indian bakra—to blame for the bad stuff—began almost immediately. The two leading candidates: head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma. Both men came into the series as widely feted superstars—riding high on non-Test success.

The Gambhir samasya: Gambhir was fresh off his smashing season as mentor of the Kolkata Knight Riders—who won the IPL title this year. And therefore the favourite to Rahul Dravid as India’s head coach. At the time, analysts warned he was a high-risk choice:

Gambhir has no previous coaching experience whatsoever. Gambhir has not coached a state team in the Ranji Trophy, he has not worked with a zonal or national age-group team and even in the IPL. He has been a mentor and a director of cricket of sorts rather than a hands-on coach. Gambhir has had a phalanx of coaches under him to run day-to-day operations while he focussed on the bigger picture.

Gambhir’s deputies—Ryan ten Doeschate and Morne Morkel— are nearly as inexperienced. They were likely picked because they worked with Gambhir during his IPL stints. It may explain why India grossly ‘misjudged the pitch’ in Bengaluru.

Ro-Ro the retiree? Rohit Sharma too was riding high on India’s T20 World Cup win. After months of being beaten up for not being Virat, Sharma found redemption this summer—only to be brought down in the fall. Once again, the ‘if-only Virat’ chorus kicked off—bolstered by this damning stat: Rohit has already led India to more home defeats in two-and-a-half years of captaincy than Kohli did in seven!

But, but, but: Virat didn’t exactly cover himself in glory either. The way he lost his wicket to Santner in the first innings in Pune was, well…:

Not helping matters at all: Rohit’s post-match presser—which included this gem:

Ye pehli baar hua hai jahaan pe collapses ho rahe hain, hum batting theek sai nahi kar paa rahe. 12 saal mein ek baar toh allowed hai, yaar (This is the first time where we’re collapsing and not batting properly. Once in 12 years is allowed, man!)

You can watch the gaffe below—in shuddh Bambaiya Hindi that we personally appreciate:

The age of retirement: Ex-player Irfan Pathan grumbled: “[S]enior players need to step up and deliver in the ultimate format of the game.” But the problem may be that the players are a bit too, umm, senior—including Virat, Rohit, Ashwin and Jadeja. All of whom are 35 or older:

These players are not going to get fundamentally better from here. Father time is at work. Come next year, this same set of players will start as favourites at home, and will most likely win again, but you can't wish away transition…This series defeat was a freight train coming, which just happened to gather speed at an unexpected time.

What’s next: India’s chances of reaching a third consecutive World Test Championship (WTC) final are slimmer now. But, but, but: We’re still top of the table for now—but there’s another Test vs NZ in Mumbai, and then a tough tour of Australia.

The bottomline: It’s the end of an era for India—a lull all great sporting dynasties go through. It’s time to embrace the inevitable and the R-word—rebuild—possibly under more experienced coaches. As for the Kiwis, this is a sweet, sweet victory—coming right after their women’s team became T20 world champions in Dubai a week ago.

Reading List: ESPNCricinfo remains the gold standard on features and analysis—Sidharth Monga breaks down the proceedings in Pune and bids a bittersweet farewell to India’s legendary home victory streak, Alagappan Muthu pays tribute to New Zealand’s brilliance, Deivarayan Muthu explains the Mitchell Santner show, and S Rajesh looks at India’s road to the WTC final from here. In Economic Times, Anand Vasu flagged Gambhir’s inexperience in July, while Fox Sports has a funny roundup of post-match reactions. For the hardcore nerds only: Good Areas presents a granular blueprint behind New Zealand’s win on Indian pitches.

Middle East madness: Israel strikes back

The context: On October 1, Iran launched unprecedented air strikes targeting military installations deep inside Israeli territory. The strikes themselves were retaliation for a series of assassinations of Iranian, Hezbollah and Hamas leaders—killed by Israeli bombs. Everyone was worried about Tel Aviv’s reaction—which would have triggered an all-out war if it took out Iran’s nuclear facilities or oil refineries.

What happened now: After weeks of pressure from Washington, Israel pulled its punches:

Israel’s hourslong attack ended just before sunrise in Tehran, with the Israeli military saying it targeted “missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year.” It also said it hit surface-to-air missile sites and “additional Iranian aerial capabilities.”

But the strike is still significant as it marks the first foreign attack on Iran since its 1980s war with Iraq. And it is the first time Israel has directly bombed Iranian territory. Associated Press has satellite imagery of the bomb sites.

As for Iran: Tehran also dialled down its rhetoric—acknowledging Israel’s measured response. President Masoud Pezeshkian said: “We do not seek war but we will defend the rights of our nation and country. We will give an appropriate response to the aggression of the Zionist regime.” The Guardian has more on why Iran is unlikely to escalate this tit-for-tat cycle.

A political earthquake in Japan

The long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party—which is, in fact, conservative—has suffered a serious setback in the national elections. It lost more than 50 seats in the House of Representatives. It does not have the numbers to form the government—even in coalition with its traditional ally Komeito. As of now it has 209 seats out of 445—with results in another 20 still pending.

Why this is huge:

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan for almost all of its post-war history… The LDP has held an outright majority since it returned to power in 2012 after a brief spell of opposition rule. It also lost power briefly in 1993, when a coalition of seven opposition parties formed a government that lasted less than a year.

The result reflects the voters’ anger at rampant corruption—and LDP complacency. But the result may also result in political instability since the opposition parties don’t seem inclined to form the government either. (New York Times, login required, Al Jazeera)

The Jio-Hotstar domain tamasha

A Delhi-based app developer snapped up the domain name JioHotstar—just so Reliance will have to buy it off him when the Disney-Jio merger is complete. His asking price: £93,345—to finance a Cambridge degree. Reliance was not amused—and planned to sue him instead. This spooked the techie’s parents—forcing him to take his website offline.

Plot mein twist: Two UAE-based kids came to his rescue—and bought the domain—but for a smaller amount than requested. The website is now back online with a message from Jainam and Jivika Jain: “Even though we're just kids, we believe that age is only a number when it comes to spreading kindness and positivity.” We can’t wait for Mukesh Cruela Ambani’s lawyers to threaten the children—giving us our very own IRL Disney movie. You can see the feisty kids below. (NDTV)

A flurry of bad news for free speech

The war on Gaza has exposed the limits of free speech in the US. It’s not the government but corporations who are cracking down. The election isn’t helping, either.

Microsoft plays rough: The company fired two employees for organising an unauthorised vigil to remember Palestinians killed in Gaza. Abdo Mohamed and Hossan Nasr were part of ‘No Azure for Apartheid’—which opposed selling cloud-computing to the Israeli government. Also notable: “Nasr said his firing was disclosed on social media by the watchdog group Stop Antisemitism more than an hour before he received the call from Microsoft.” Reminder: Google fired 50 employees in April protesting the $1.2 billion Project Nimbus—a collab with Israel—which also includes Amazon. (Associated Press)

Meanwhile, over at Netflix: The streaming platform has removed 24 films from its ‘Palestinian Stories’ collective—which was launched in 2021 to showcase work from Arab filmmakers. Only one of these films is available on Netflix US—and the section doesn’t even exist in Israel. Netflix claims they didn’t pull the films—but chose not to renew their licence. The kicker was this line: “As always we continue to invest in a wide variety of quality films and TV shows to meet our members’ needs, and celebrate voices from around the world.” (The Intercept, login required, Hollywood Reporter)

Meanwhile, over at WaPo: The Washington Post will not endorse a presidential candidate for the first time in 48 years. The paper’s publisher calls it a return to the paper’s “independent” roots. But its own reporting shows that the endorsement of Kamala Harris was killed by WaPo owner Jeff Bezos:

An endorsement of Harris had been drafted by Post editorial page staffers but had yet to be published, according to two people who were briefed on the sequence of events and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The decision to no longer publish presidential endorsements was made by The Post’s owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, according to four people who were briefed on the decision.

Let’s take a minute to admire the courage of the editorial staff of the paper to report this story about their owner. FYI: This is why they say democracy dies in darkness—and we need courageous journalism to shine the light. Without this reporting, no one would ever know for sure. You can read the story over at Washington Post (splainer gift link).

Meanwhile, over at LA Times: Owner Patrick Soon-Shiong also blocked the paper’s endorsement of Harris—leading to three high-ranking resignations—including the editorial board editor Mariel Garza.

The big picture: In India, news outlets have long been beholden to the business interests of their owners. It is now becoming a norm in the US, as well—in an era where news has become a losing business—and billionaires are required to bail out even the biggest names. For more, check out our two-parter Big Story on the slo-mo collapse of online news and the future of the news subscription business. (CNN)

Elon Musk’s ongoing nautanki

Between his antics and the media’s obsession with his antics, Musk has become a permanent fixture in news headlines.

Musk the illegal immigrant: A lengthy Washington Post report shows that Musk violated student visa laws—when he was at Stanford. An international student cannot work off-campus. Musk, however, dropped out to build a company that became Zip2:

Musk arrived in Palo Alto in 1995 for a graduate degree program at Stanford University but never enrolled in courses, working instead on his start-up. Leaving school left Musk without a legal basis to remain in the United States, according to legal experts. Foreign students cannot drop out of school to build a company, even if they are not immediately getting paid, said [immigration expert] Leon Fresco.

The startup sold for about $300 million in 1999—and became the foundation of Musk’s billion-dollar career. Why this matters: Musk now supports Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda. (Washington Post)

Moving on to Moscow: A Wall Street Journal investigation shows that Musk has been in regular touch with Vladimir Putin since 2022—discussing matters that touch national security: “At one point, Putin asked the billionaire to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favour to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.” Why this isn’t Elon being Elon:

Musk has forged deep business ties with U.S. military and intelligence agencies, giving him unique visibility into some of America’s most sensitive space programs. SpaceX, which operates the Starlink service, won a $1.8 billion classified contract in 2021 and is the primary rocket launcher for the Pentagon and NASA. Musk has a security clearance that allows him access to certain classified information.

Wall Street Journal is paywalled, but Quartz has the summary.

Poor sleep is ageing your brain

A new study has found that the brains of people in their 40s who don’t sleep well age faster—when they enter their 50s. The main finding:

After adjusting for factors like age, sex, high blood pressure and diabetes, the group with the most trouble sleeping had brains 2.6 years older than those who got the best quality sleep, on average.

This is pronounced in people who experience bad sleep, have difficulty falling asleep, or wake up too early for at least five years. Something to think about—since sleep is typically the first casualty of middle age. (CBS News)

what caught our eye

business & tech

India’s first union of women gig workers has called for a ‘digital strike’—i.e. switching off their phones—to take place on Diwali.
Say hello to Swiggy’s new NRI-friendly International Logins feature: it allows users based in 27 countries outside India to order on behalf of friends and family in India.
Also in the works: Google’s ‘Project Jarvis’—AI technology that will have the power to take over web browsers and even entire computers to complete tasks like flight bookings or purchase products. Sounds Marvel-lously familiar.
Amid endless reputation-damaging incidents this year including being dumped by NASA, Boeing is looking to sell off parts of its space business. Check out our Big Story on Boeing’s troubled Starliner for more context.

sports & entertainment

The Bookmy-shitshow over Coldplay tickets continues—after conducting raids in a money laundering case, the ED has found irregularities in ticket sales for the upcoming Coldplay concerts, as well as for Diljit Dosanjh’s ‘Dil-Luminati’ tour.
Lady Gaga is on a prolific streak—a month after her surprise album release for ‘Joker: Folie À Deux’, the pop star is back with a new hit single titled ‘Disease’.
Streaming platforms owned by European public broadcasters—such as BBC, the UK’s ITV or Germany’s ARD—are outperforming the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video when it comes to depth of content libraries.
MCU devotees, get hyped! ‘Spider-Man 4’ now has a release date: July 4, 2026.

as for the rest

The Commonwealth’s new secretary general is…Ghana’s foreign minister Shirley Ayorkoy Botchwey! She’s supported reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism by the British Empire.
Seven Punjab police personnel have been suspended for dereliction of duty for felicitating a televised interview of Lawrence Bishnoi while in police custody. For more, check out Jupinderjit Singh’s profile of the gangster in our weekly Advisory.
Delhi Police has arrested a 25-year-old man named Shubham Upadhyay, for allegedly sending hoax bomb threat messages to flights for publicity. Check out our Big Story for more on these feku bomb threats.
There’s a growing trend of governments resorting to false charges of financial crimes to silence media outlets like NewsClick in India.
The human brain can process certain sentences within the ‘blink of an eye’.
The Guardian has a must-read on the tragic passing of a desi man, who was trying to cross the English Channel into France on a dodgy dinghy with 50 other men. Fifty seven such crossing deaths have happened this year.
Also in The Guardian: a look at Cuba’s devastating power grid failure amid a deeper financial crisis that has engulfed the Caribbean island.
Economic Times has a good read on the big chase within India for an affordable alternative to the cancer drug Keytruda.
PTI via The Hindu reports on doctors’ struggle to diagnose and treat patients suffering from long Covid and its symptoms. A contributing factor: inadequate studies.

Six things to see

One: India hosted its first ever pickleball tournament—which was aced by Armaan Bhatia. He won all three finals in men’s singles, men’s doubles, and mixed doubles. Indian Express has more. Check out his title-winning point in men’s doubles—alongside compatriot Harsh Mehta.

Two: Queen B backed Kamala Harris at her Houston rally—attended by 30,000 people, her largest till date—on Friday (see the hug here). But she did not perform, and Harris got booed. So not exactly a win. (The Guardian)

Three: Over at Times Square, cops shut down a performance of the Levantine dance Dabke—because the dancers were wearing keffiyehs.

Four: Jeevansathi ad campaigns are getting weirder and weirder. The company distributed free water bottles at Diljit Dosanjh’s Delhi concert—wearing a white-t shirt, with the phrase “Singles Ko Paani Pilao Yojana” (Give water bottles to the singles). Even stranger: The message on the bottles: “Jeevansathi pe aa gaye hote toh aaj ye bottle nahi uska haath pakda hota” (Had you joined Jeevansathi, you’d be holding hands instead of this bottle). More corniness in the image below. (Mint)

Five: Mumbai Airport is bringing back its Pawfect initiative to Terminal 2. Nine therapy dogs will be available to comfort stressed out travellers. FYI: Mumbai is the only Indian airport with a therapy dogs programme as of now. (Indian Express)