New Zealand 3-0 India: Key Takeaways from second international friendly

Chris Wood found the back of the net as New Zealand dominated the Blue Tigers. 

Khalid Jamil’s Indian football team suffered a second consecutive defeat to New Zealand on Sunday as the All Whites secured a 3-0 win at the One New Zealand Stadium in Christchurch. Finn Surman, James McGarry, and Chris Wood scored for the home side. 

Earlier in the week, New Zealand had beaten India 5-0 in Auckland. The Blue Tigers will have to return to the drawing board as they can hardly take any positives to take home from the tour. 

Here are the key takeaways from India’s 3-0 loss to New Zealand.

Khalid Jamil names a plethora of left-sided players in his starting line-up

To everyone’s surprise, Khalid Jamil named Jay Gupta, Akash Mishra, and Naorem Roshan Singh in the starting XI, though all three players primarily play as left backs. Aside from them, India’s head coach also included Mohammed Sanan and Ashique Kuruniyan in his line-up, though both of them are left midfielders/wingers. 

Ashique played as an attacking midfielder while Roshan started in the defensive midfield and dropped back to assist his defence whenever needed.

Jay Gupta on the other hand, played as a centreback. This selection immediately raised eyebrows, as India already had natural players in the squad who could have played in these positions. 

Vishal Kaith makes a mistake to concede India’s first goal

Vishal Kaith was brought back into the Indian football team after Gurpreeet Singh Sandhu underperformed in the last international window. The Mohun Bagan goalkeeper had a good first game against New Zealand, though India conceded five goals. 

However, Vishal was to blame for New Zealand’s first goal as couldn’t punch out a corner kick, which eventually resulted in Finn Surman heading the ball into an empty Indian goal. Vishal conceded two more goals in the first forty five minutes, before being taken off for Hritik Tiwari at the half-time interval. 

Khalid Jamil opted for damage control, but it was too late

Aside from bringing on Hritik Tiwari, Khalid also brought on the centre back pairing of Bijoy Varghese and Pramveer at half time. Bringing on a proper centre back pairing did give India some solidity, but New Zealand had already stepped off the gas pedal. 

India also brought on some in-form youngsters in Lalrinliana Hnamte, Muhammad Suhail, and David Lahlansanga to play an attacking approach, but it was far too late to influence anything in the second half. 

India couldn’t trouble the New Zealand goalkeeper

With New Zealand on the front foot, India started the game defensively, playing a back-five set-up and defending deep in their own half.

This meant that whenever they got a chance – Ryan Williams, Manvir Singh, and Mohammed Sanan didn’t have much support to go against the quality of New Zealand’s backline. 

India took a few shots from outside the box in the second half, but none of them troubled the New Zealand goalkeeper – Alex Paulsen as they were off-target. The Blue Tigers eventually ended the game with an embarrassing zero shots on target, with hardly any chances created as well. 

A positive end to Darren Bazeley’s tenure with the All Whites

Darren Bazeley was the head coach of the New Zealand national team from 2023 and the 3-0 win against India was his last match in charge of the All-Whites.

The Englishman has been coaching Down Under since 2011, initially starting off with New Zealand’s U-17 team before slowly climbing up the ladder. 

Though he 54-year-old helped the All Whites qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2026, New Zealand Football had decided not to renew Bazeley’s contract, which expires at the end of 2026. They are looking to move forward with someone new at the helm as they get set to begin preparations for the qualifiers of the FIFA World Cup 2030. 

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