New Zealand caught ‘overconfident’ India off guard: Brett Lee

NEW DELHI: Former Australia pacer Brett Lee believes India underestimated New Zealand, leading to their 0-3 defeat in the home Test series. India’s batters, struggling against New Zealand spinners Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel, were unable to find answers, resulting in repeated low scores in the series. Lee pointed out that India may have entered the series with overconfidence due to their strong home record.
On his YouTube channel, Lee said, “They went into the series thinking that we’ll just whitewash the Kiwis, thinking that’s going to be an easy series. And that’s no disrespect to the Kiwis. It’s just that India are so powerful, so strong on home soil. The Kiwis caught India off-guard.”
The former fast bowler highlighted a concerning pattern in India’s batting approach, which lacked patience. He suggested that India’s aggressive mindset may have backfired as they forced their game against the disciplined Kiwi bowlers.

With the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on the horizon, starting on November 22 in Perth, Lee remains confident that India can bounce back and prepare themselves for the crucial series against Australia.
“This is a great learning curve for all out there. Probably not for Aussies because now they’ve got to understand that India will be much-better prepared. They are going to come in strong. They would have got a kick up the backside from their coach,

Gautam Gambhir. This is atrocious, the way they played but they are still a team of champions. They have had a downfall over the last couple of weeks; it does happen in cricket,” Lee added.

Lee also weighed in on the poor form of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, both of whom have struggled with the bat this year. He advised the duo to take time off, refresh, and focus on refining their techniques ahead of the Australian series.
“When you have a couple of bad runs back-to-back, that’s when the pressure could set in. I guess the thing now is someone like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma just have to go back to the drawing board. Work on that technique, freshen up, get away from cricket as much as they can and then hit the ground running when they go to Australia, because I can promise you – these Australian fast bowlers will attack Rohit Sharma with that brand new ball,” Lee warned.
With a spot in the

World Test Championship

final up for grabs, Lee believes India will come back stronger and well-prepared for the upcoming series against Australia.