New Zealand are the toast of the cricket world after blanking India 3-0 in their World Test Championship (WTC) series. A time to celebrate for fans of New Zealand cricket then, led here by former New Zealand stalwarts Ross Taylor, Daniel Vettori and Shane Bond, who spoke to ESPNcricinfo soon after history was made in Mumbai.
Shane Bond: Delight is the first reaction. New Zealand coming off the back of that series in Sri Lanka where they played pretty well, probably could have won the first Test, but lost the series 2-0. I don't think anyone, anywhere, especially at home, thought we could win this series, let alone a 3-0 sweep. I gave a little fist pump when Ajaz [Patel] went through the gate to get that last wicket [of Washington Sundar] and I'm absolutely delighted for the players, for Gary [Stead], the head coach.
It's always nice to see history created and for a team like New Zealand to beat India and become the first team to sweep them in a three-match series at home is something pretty remarkable.
Ross Taylor: Like most of the country, I'm just in awe of the team. I think the way they played throughout the whole series… I think we hoped more than thought we were going to win. But a clean sweep - think it still hasn't quite sunk in among the New Zealand public, probably for the players as well.
Cricket is fighting for an audience [in New Zealand]. It's a rugby nation, now there's an extra football league in our local competition, so cricket after losing in Sri Lanka, the press after that has changed around completely. I don't think we've had scenes like this since winning the [last] World Test Championship and I think it just tells you how high the New Zealand cricket public holds the Indian cricket team and what it's like to go and win over there.
After winning the first Test [in Bengaluru], it gave the team as well as the public some belief, but I don't think even in our wildest dreams we imagined a clean sweep and such a convincing performance from Tom [Latham, the captain], Gary and the boys.
Daniel Vettori: I think the excitement built from the first Test match. The expectation for any touring team that goes to India on these types of wickets is that it's going to be incredibly difficult. We understand the challenge and in a lot of ways it's just how are you going to compete against them. And for New Zealand to then go there, put in such an amazing performance in the first Test… people around New Zealand saw the excitement knowing how hard it is, given the history with two Test match wins in almost 80 years and a lot of trying.
You have to go back to the great Sir Richard Hadlee's era, and he could only get one win. So for this team to come here and get that first one and then to win a series is probably New Zealand cricket's greatest achievement.
Vettori on what the win means for New Zealand
How did New Zealand put it all together?
Taylor: After the Sri Lanka series loss just before [the India series]… what I found when I was playing was a New Zealand team that has nothing to lose and everyone writing them off is a dangerous New Zealand team. I think that's where this team was at the start of the series. Obviously, you come to India after being completely outplayed in Sri Lanka, probably only the players in that dressing room and the support staff gave themselves a chance, and I think anytime you're giving New Zealand the expectation to do well, that's when I think we've struggled in the past. But a New Zealand team that's got their backs against the wall is a pretty dangerous side.
You need a little bit of luck as well. Bengaluru was a good toss to lose. And then winning the toss in the next two Tests [in Pune and Mumbai] after New Zealand knew they are likely to play on turners after India went down in the first Test was significant.
Bond: I think if you look at this New Zealand team, they have a really nice blend of experience and youth. You've got players who've played in the IPL and in Indian conditions. You got contributions from everybody. Everyone through different Test matches stood up. It was Mitchell Santner in Pune, Ajaz in this one. And you've got a team that has had success in the last ten years, so they believe they can win and compete. Obviously that first Test match in Bengaluru, to start the series well was massive, and they've sort of just ridden the wave and ridden that experience through the series as well. New Zealand have had a great period over the past ten years, and this is just the perfect way to cap it off.
And I think Tom Latham talked about it. They've come with a clear game plan. They understood how they wanted to play and how they thought they could win, and they've executed it. And for longer periods of time, they've been better than India. They've sort of done an India on India and they've done it over three Tests, which is a hell of an effort.
Vettori: Obviously a lot of planning has gone on. I think the hardest thing going to India is the ability to score runs against [Ravindra] Jadeja and [R] Ashwin, and on this tour you had Kuldeep [Yadav] in the first Test and Washington [Sundar] in the last two. So the gameplan to score runs against bowlers like those was impeccable, and allowed New Zealand to put pressure on India, which is so rare.
When you go to India, you feel like you're hanging on for dear life most of the time. But it felt like in all three Tests, New Zealand made the running, and that's really so unique in that part of the world.
I think it was the batting. When you tour India and come up against Ashwin and Jadeja in particular, with their immense home record, the planning goes into firstly negating their wicket-taking ability and then secondly how you're going to score runs. It just looked like New Zealand had such a good gameplan to be able to take on those two and find ways to score runs and actually put some pressure back on India.
The New Zealand batter was named Player of the Series against India
On the success of Devon Conway, Will Young and Rachin Ravindra with the bat
Vettori: It was so nice for New Zealand to go through Devon's lean patch and trust him and allow him to keep going, because he's a quality player and has performed ever since he's come in to the side, and they backed him and got the reward in this series.
Rachin, in a short period of time, has proven how successful he can be in all formats, and in particular in the subcontinent. So to have those two players and a Will Young as well as the others contribute meant that India couldn't put pressure on the batters and New Zealand were aggressive, they took really good options. [Daryl] Mitchell as well in the last Test. So the batting group came together and stood up and put up six really good performances with the bat and that's what you have to do against India. It can't just be a one-off, it has to be consistent.
On doing it without Kane Williamson
Taylor: All the batters contributed at different times. Will Young trusted his defence a bit more than all the other players, and he looked at ease. When you're coming up against Jadeja and Ashwin, you can sort of put them on a pedestal and try and survive. I think we tried to hit 360, and the way all the batters tried to reverse sweep meant Ashwin and Jadeja weren't able to settle on a length.
When you do let those two bowl over after over on the same spot, you're going to get a ball with your name on it, but I think Will Young set the tone. A lot has already been said about it but winning 3-0 without our best batter - and Will Young had to step in to fill those big shoes of Kane Williamson, which can be quite intimidating - but he handled it with calmness. It would've been easy to give that position to someone else, but for him to win Player of the Series is a fantastic accolade.
Bond: We were missing our best player. That's probably the most remarkable thing, that Kane Williamson wasn't even there.
So I think for a group to go, 'no one is irreplicable, we can still perform without one of our best players', and the fact that they managed to play the way they did - especially Will Young who was brilliant - that's a real credit to the group and to Gary Stead, who has done a great job with the team.
Sanjay Manjrekar hails Ajaz Patel for spinning New Zealand to victory in Mumbai
How did Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel pull it off?
Vettori: I think there's trust built up with Mitch over a long period of time. He's a senior player, he's a captain, and I suppose at the start of the series he was secondary to Ajaz, who has been incredibly successful in the subcontinent.
But the way that he bowled when he got his opportunity… the style, the pace, his ability to read the Indian batters, and then to have a surface that really suits him, just shows when you get on that roll, anything's possible. Everyone knew Mitch had this sort of performance in him but to do it in India, take 13 wickets [in the Pune Test] and set up a series win, that's incredible.
Ajaz Patel is just completely consistent. His action is repeatable. The balls he bowls are repeatable with a lovely seam position and he gets a lot of revolutions on it. He was able to consistently put these great Indian batters under pressure. I thought New Zealand set some great fields to allow that pressure to maintain, so all these things in combination put together another incredible Wankhede performance from him.
On the contribution of New Zealand's seamers
Bond: Well, you don't have to worry about the bowling workload, do you, for starters, when you have seamers bowling six overs between them! But if you look at Matt Henry, his Test record has gone from averaging 50 at one point to now being almost in the 20s. That's how good he's become over the last few years.
That experience of [Tim] Southee at times when everyone else was going around the park, he controls that run rate. Will O'Rourke is a hugely exciting prospect for New Zealand. New Zealand have obviously got the guys who are now in their early 30s and have been around a long time. But it's that blend now. [Glenn] Phillips at 27, Ravindra at 24 - he is going to be a quality player - and O'Rourke at 23.
Sanjay Manjrekar on the all-round contributions for New Zealand in their 3-0 blanking of India
The importance of Glenn Phillips…
Bond: I think New Zealand have come to India this time with part-time spin bowlers. In the past, we've had the part-time medium-pace bowlers. And now when you look at someone like Glenn Phillips, who has really worked hard over the last four years to develop his bowling, even Rachin Ravindra... just having those options has allowed New Zealand to have much more depth in the spin-bowling department and that's led to having depth in their batting, which has really helped them.
Vettori: He's the real complementary piece to it all. A No. 7 batter who is as aggressive as he is but can offer a lot of overs. I'm sure he reflects upon his performances in Bangladesh and that ability to perform in those conditions with bat and ball gave him the confidence to come up against this batting line-up and continue on that form. That allows every other facet of the game to come together. So I think when you look at that team, and what Glenn Phillips was able to contribute, that was a key part of achieving the series victory.
A word on Tom Latham's captaincy…
Taylor: There's an attacking nature to Tom. He's had a lot of captaincy experience. He has captained the New Zealand team in all three formats of the game, so it's not like it has just come to him overnight. But I think all those games that he has captained over the last three-to-five years came to the fore and he was able to show not only his attacking nature but also his discipline and the way he rotated his bowlers… New Zealand outfielded, outbatted and outbowled India. New Zealand's tactics were definitely better than India's.
Apart from Kane Williamson and Tim Southee losing the captaincy, it's the same team that lost to Sri Lanka. So there's something to be said about that. Latham has a calming influence, the leadership will improve his batting and we saw glimpses of that.
Bond: Great start to your captaincy reign! I think you've got to pay some credit to Tim Southee, who was magnanimous enough to step down and say, 'look, it's someone else's time', and Tom would have reaped the rewards of a lot of the work that Tim's done over the last few years. But I know Latham's a very good captain, good man, and good leader. I thought the innings he played in the Pune Test was the best innings I've seen him play, leading from the front.
You can sit there and watch TV as you do and pick holes in some of the decisions and go 'why is he doing this and that' but at the end of the day he's won 3-0 and done a brilliant job.
What went right for Tom Latham in his first full-time assignment as captain?
Vettori: Latham's been one of the leaders of this team for a long, long time, and I wouldn't underestimate the inputs that Southee had in that group as well. Between them and Gary Stead, they were able to formulate a fantastic plan and implement it. A lot of teams have had great plans going into India, but to implement it for three Tests pretty much every day of the Test series is a credit to all of them.
... and on Gary Stead, the man in the background
Bond: I think he was probably under some pressure. There were enough voices at home calling for his sacking after the men's T20 World Cup and a tough tour of Sri Lanka. But no one works harder than Gary - I've played a lot of cricket with him. He coached me as a boy actually. I played with him and then worked alongside [him] as a coach. He's a great man, very hard working.
In New Zealand, if you win the rugby World Cup, you get knighthoods. Gary's taken this team to World Cup finals, won a World Test Championship, now this series win, and you still won't see him front and centre. That's the sort of guy he is. But I'm delighted for him, he's a top man and should get the recognition for the work that he's done.
Taylor: Gary Stead and Tom Latham have a good rapport. Gary's been around a long time. We were outplayed on the last trip [to India in 2021], but he would've learnt things about how he would want to go about it again. He is quiet, unassuming. Sits in the background. He would have had a big influence on the way that the team prepared, giving Tom some ideas along the way.
And not just Gary, you've got a pretty accomplished support staff in Jacob Oram and Luke Ronchi there as well. That would've had a big influence.
New Zealand's greatest feat in men's cricket?
Taylor: This has to be the greatest New Zealand series win in Test cricket. No one has done it. South Africa have won a two-match series 2-0, but 3-0 in India, I don't think anyone could see this at the start. So this surpasses the 2-1 Test victory in the '80s against Australia.
It's also great for the World Test Championship and I'm sure the next team that comes to India will travel there with more confidence now, but I'm also sure India are a proud nation and they'll be trying their hardest to rectify what went wrong here.
Bond: In terms of Test matches, it's our best result ever. No other team has come and done what New Zealand have. When you talk to all the teams about touring India, it almost seems like mission impossible. Even the great Australian team came there and couldn't win. So for NZ to have won 3-0, I know they've made World Cup finals and would have loved to have won an ODI World Cup, but I think in terms of red-ball cricket, alongside the WTC [title win], this is far and away the best series result ever.
The New Zealand captain highlighted the importance of Glenn Phillips' all-round contributions to the 3-0 result
What does this result mean for New Zealand, and Test cricket in general?
Bond: I think Test cricket needs this. It needs a tight championship. It's good overall for cricket. The game is still going to be challenged by T20 cricket, but I think New Zealand has been lucky over the last ten years to have made it to World Cup finals in men's ODI and T20 cricket, the Test championship win, and now this. I think it's always nice to see a game you love at home prosper. With England coming soon, I know it's already sold out, people are pumped about cricket. And it's nice in a country that loves the winter coats predominantly, that people will be talking about cricket, and about this performance, because everyone recognises what an effort this is.
Taylor: We're coming up to a big period in our cricket, to be honest. The England series is going to be massive, players are going to head away after that. But this just reminds us that Test cricket is right up there as the ultimate format. And that'll show in the crowds for the upcoming series. I think it's going to be something we haven't seen in a long period of time in Test cricket and that's a testament to the team and also a testament to where Test cricket is still held around the world. Hopefully this is a good sign for young players that they still want to play Test cricket in the years to come, but we don't have the money and resources that some of the other teams do, so we have to skin the cat differently. But results like these put it out to the players that Test cricket is still the ultimate form.
Vettori: I think this is an exciting time. What you want to see is every team on a level-playing field. Hardest thing to do in cricket is win Tests away from home, and New Zealand have proved they can do that. It'll give them confidence wherever they go in the world, so I think it's great for both Test cricket and the WTC, it keeps it wide open.