India’s performance in this series has been thoroughly professional and of a champion team, but with a baggage of history. India won the series comfortably 1-0, they should have won it 3-0 because India is a far superior side than New Zealand. Still it was a professional performance, the team expected to win, there were no wild celebrations but a calm acknowledgment of victory. This is best signified by Gambhir getting out on 167 and admonishing himself as if he has been dismissed for a duck.

Till the last decade whenever India went abroad the question was ‘By how much will India lose?’, the bowlers would do fine but the batsmen usually failed misereably. Things started changing at the beginning of this decade. Sachin Tendulkar who used to fight a lone battle overseas started getting support from Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag and on ocassions Sourav Ganguly. In this series Gautam Gambhir and Mahendra Singh Dhoni have also chipped in. The middle order comprising Dravid, Sachin and Laxman just gives so much comfort to the team, these are extremenly skillfull and experienced players who just keep put churning good performances. With the addition of Sehwag and Gambhir at the top, the batting line up is more than just formidable. 

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Even formidable batting line-ups fail at times, till the nineties the tail would simply be blown away by a fast bowler. But Dhoni, the wicketkeeper, is a proper batsman. Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan have rescused India so many times with the bat now, that both combined can be counted as one  batsman, this is a refreshing change from the past.

Another change from the past has been the Indian pace attack. Till the nineties, the opposition would simply prepare green tops for their fast bowlers, now they have to think twice about it. Not only the Indian batsman can play fast bowling better than most other teams, India have a threatning pace attack. Zaheer Khan has been in the form of his life for the last couple of years, and he has found a perfect foil in Ishant Sharma. These 2 combined have the ability to destroy any batting line up on any sort of track, show them a green top and they can wreck havoc. 

India went to New Zealand with the expectation of a series victory and they achieved it, the only question was ‘By how much will India win?’. Some might say India was too defensive in the last test when Dhoni did not declare earlier. Well India had not won a series in New Zealand for the last 41 years, Dhoni just wanted to be safe. You just dont forget history so quickly, I bet the next time India is in a similar situation they might not be so defensive. Under Ganguly India forgot about losing, under Dhoni India will learn about winning.

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