Don't cry it's over. Rejoice it happened. One of the great runs in our sport has come to an end. It spanned three captaincies (four if you count Ajinkya Rahane), three coaches (four if you count the two staggered Ravi Shastri stints separately), and survived batting and fast-bowling transitions. It was so long that the current coach was a player when India last lost a series at home. In between he made a Test comeback, won an IPL, served a term as a Member of Parliament, mentored two IPL teams, won another IPL title as a mentor, and is now back as India's coach.
While also being at their best-ever when travelling, India took their home dominance to such extremes that winning a Test series in India became more difficult than winning a World Cup of either format or a World Test Championship. The world just didn't have the depth to match the sides India played at home. You could outscore their top order - which teams did for varying lengths of time - but the allrounders, also two of the best spin bowlers of all time, always pulled India out of holes of varying sizes. Batters will tell you just how much risk taking even a single involved when the ball was turning and R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja at their prime bowled with 6-3 or 7-2 fields.
On the final day of this streak, the two allrounders took one final stand, triggering a 5-for-24 collapse with the ball, batting with each other for 12.3 calm overs, giving us time to go over the wonderful memories created over the period. It is hard to ignore, though, that the final nail was nailed in in a Test in which Ashwin and Jadeja were outbowled by two spinners who entered the match with two first-class five-fors between them.
Far be it for anyone to suggest that this golden age is over, but 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. Virat Kohli has averaged 32 over the last five years. He will be 36 before he takes the plane to Australia. He still might find an Indian Summer down under, but there likely won't be another such summer. The same goes for Rohit Sharma, Ashwin and Jadeja.
It's not like the signs haven't been there. Pune was India's fifth Test defeat at home since 2021. In the previous seven years, they had lost just one at home. The need for rescue acts from the allrounders had increased. Jadeja started missing Tests with various injuries. Ashwin's lengths have not been as exacting as they earlier were. This series defeat was a freight train coming, which just happened to gather speed at an unexpected time.
The weather in Bengaluru turned at the right times for the opposition, New Zealand lost a good toss to lose and won a good toss to win, and boom... It didn't even take two excellent spinners bowling in tandem, which was considered the bare minimum to beat India in India. The previous series defeat at home came to Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar, aided by James Anderson's reverse swing. Panesar was temperamental but he was good when he was good. A Sreesanth if you will. High ceiling. Here New Zealand rocked up casually after a 2-0 wipeout in Sri Lanka, didn't play any warm-up game, and we thought we knew the ceiling of Steady Santner. It is a bit like The Undertaker dropping his Wrestlemania streak to a part-timer.
In a way, this result is good for the new spinners and batters who will carry India in two-three years' time. A streak won't be their burden to carry. But the administration and the players will do well to learn the commitment it took to build this empire. Ashwin is not the fittest athlete going around, but he never missed a single home Test. Jadeja only started missing the odd Test after 2020. That Kuldeep Yadav, who should be the spin leader for a few years, did not or wasn't made to sort out his chronic left groin issue between the T20 World Cup and now smacks of complacency on both the player's and the administration's part.
Transitions are tricky. Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar have the unenviable job of getting in new players who will learn from the experience of these stalwarts, and have a formidable team ready by the time Australia come to India for a five-Test series in January 2027. Skill might not be an issue in this massive country, but game awareness, when to attack and when to weather a storm, preparedness, body management, all needs to be learned. While also managing two massive tours of Australia and England in the coming 12 months, tours that can turn ugly in no time if the injured Mohammed Shami is not adequately replaced.
It will be a bittersweet morning after for the players. They will be proud of the streak, but will also be asking themselves if it could have been extended. Even those who were not a part of the losing side: Cheteshwar Pujara, Rahane, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shami and others who played smaller roles.
Spare a thought for Ashwin, Jadeja and Kohli, constants throughout the streak. Professional rivals in many ways who came together beautifully. Ashwin having a go at Anderson because he took the captain's name in vain. Kohli building up pressure for Ashwin by not letting one ball pass through him at short straight midwicket. Younger, quicker men didn't have that intuition to move the right way whenever Kohli missed a match. Ashwin and Jadeja gradually learning to admire each other despite being two completely different persons.
Now they will listen to their bodies a little more closely and decide when to completely pass the torch. Agarkar will have to be as ruthless as he was with Pujara and Rahane. Batters will be more dispensable than bowlers, but also likelier to make comebacks at an advanced age. A few emotional years await Indian cricket. Savour every last bit of it.