It’s certainly a series I’ll never forget: Tom Latham after historic India triumph

Just over a month ago, Tom Latham was ‘just another player’ in this New Zealand set-up who had been at the receiving end of a thumping at the hands of Sri Lanka in Galle.

Fast forward some 40 days, Latham has just become the first New Zealand captain in history to win a Test series in India, and is the leader of the first team in cricket history to whitewash India in a three-match bilateral series in their own backyard.

Life, then, can sometimes be unpredictable in a good way. 

"I'm lost for words a little bit in terms of what's happened over the last three days, but also the last three weeks," Latham said after the Mumbai triumph.

 "I guess if you asked me at the start of the tour whether I would have liked to be in this position... to be here now and play the cricket that we've played is really special and I'm really proud of the group."

New Zealand winning the first Test in Bengaluru was a shock but that was seen as an anomaly due to a lot of things falling into place for them. But then the Kiwis doubled down by hammering India in Pune and winning the series. On November 3 (Sunday), they made it a hat-trick of wins to complete one of the most extraordinary cricketing achievements of this century.

Unsurprisingly for Latham, this is a series he will ‘never forget’.

"Pretty happy we got the job done. It's been a massive achievement, and I think after the first one, it was obviously pretty special. The second one - to win a series, you know, was even more special. And we spoke about coming here and trying to adapt as much as we can and I guess to be in this position [3-0], it's certainly a series that I'll never forget,” he said.

"We'll obviously share that, and we'll celebrate as a group together tonight and the next couple of days before we head home, but yeah it's certainly been an amazing series to be a part of. I think it will sink in a little bit more when we get home and once the dust settles, but yeah it's been a fantastic achievement," he said.

Many great sides and great captains have not conquered the final frontier that is India, but Latham managed to do it in his first series as full-time skipper. Yet the 32-year-old refrained from taking credit and lavished praise on the entire group for winning the series as a team.

Across the three Tests, every single New Zealand player made a pivotal contribution at one point or the other. Even Ish Sodhi, who was picked as a specialist spinner in Mumbai but only bowled seven overs in the contest, made his presence known by picking the huge wicket of Rishabh Pant in India’s first innings of the third Test.

"I guess from my point of view, leading this group... It's always a really proud moment to lead New Zealand and I guess to come here and be my first time as full-time captain and to be in this position is really special," Latham said.

"But for me it's not about me, it's about the team and yeah the team has done the job. At the end of the day, everyone's chipped in when they need it and that's the beauty of a team sport. It's not going to be everyone's day on particular days but guys stand up when they need to. And guys stood up at certain times throughout this whole series which I'm really proud of.”

After losing a ‘good toss’ in Bengaluru, New Zealand made the fullest advantage of the toss by putting up two very good showings with the bat in Pune and Mumbai.

Latham admitted that his side were fortuitous in terms of the toss but insisted that he was proud of the way his side went about business with the bat on some really brutal surfaces.

"I think we managed to fall on the right side of a couple of tosses and I guess in doing that we managed to put runs on the board in the last couple of games. And I guess when you're chasing scores and you know from our point of view runs on the board are really important and some of these pitches that we've played on have been really hard,” he said.

"They certainly haven't got easier from a batting point of view, so we knew today India were going to come hard. They did that in Pune and they did that again today. And we obviously managed to get the results which was really nice," Latham added.

New Zealand have three more Tests in this ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, all against England at home. Winning all three will put them in prime position to make it to the WTC final for the second time. 

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