India vs New Zealand 2019: 3 positives and 2 negatives for India from their ODI series win

Negative #2: Batting performances in swinging conditions

Indian batsmen looked all at sea in the 4th ODI

Back to the early days of the 21st century, India were always seen as a team that played spin really well but struggled in swinging and seaming conditions abroad. That was seen as the main reason why the team lost so many matches when touring overseas.

These days, they win quite a lot in foreign conditions but does that mean they can now handle swing better? Not quite. It is more due to small grounds and flat pitches which often have nothing in them for the bowlers.

The same was the story in the first three matches of the series. The New Zealand batsmen succumbed to the genius of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, and their fast bowlers found no swing at all, resulting in the Indian batsmen carting them to all parts of the ground.

But as soon New Zealand found conditions helpful to their bowlers, Indian batsmen started dancing to their tunes in the fourth ODI. Trent Boult ran through the Indian batting line-up to skittle them for their 7th lowest ODI total ever, and Rohit Sharma publicly acknowledged that it was one of their worst batting performances in a long, long time.

The same was the case in the final ODI until Ambati Rayudu and Vijay Shankar bailed the team out of trouble.

India are unlikely to counter such conditions for the majority of the 2019 World Cup. But if they do come across typical English conditions, this series has raised alarm bells regarding the ability of their batsmen, more so their top order, to face it.