Like the former captain, Mandhana and Kaur have been great role players for India with the bat. Mandhana has spoken about the need to be consistent in her performance and she has been able to take up that responsibility in this calendar year. Similarly, Kaur has batted with and around the players with relatively less experience to keep India afloat. Their efforts have shown results that are visible to everyone.

However, with all eyes on the ODI World Cup in 2025, that too on home soil, India would hope that this doesn’t turn into an over-reliance of sorts on the two senior players. The glimpses of other players taking up the responsibility have been on display, but India still needs them to perform better, especially in the situations when Kaur and Mandhana don’t get going. With the next ODI series in December, against Australia, India have enough time to create a second string of batters who can play that role. For now, they have a series win to celebrate.

Brief scores: New Zealand 232 all out in 49.5 ovs (Halliday 86, Plimmer 39; Sharma 3/39) lost to India 236/4 in 44.2 ovs (Mandhana 100, Kaur 59 n.o; Rowe 2/47)