The whole series India was thoroughly outplayed in only one game: at Auckland on March 14, when the Kiwis won by 8 wickets and almost 20 overs to spare. Apparently that was the only game where the ball was seaming around like it was during the 2002-03 tour.Having failed in that game, India did not get another chance to correct its reputation of being a flat wicket bully.
That remains a significant chink in India's reputation, even as it is now being called one of the top 3 teams in all forms of the game. In fact New Zealand would well argue, on the basis of the Auckland result, that if Daniel Vettori had got the tracks he had asked for India could well have gone the way of the 2002-03 tour. And consider this: the current Indian team is one of the best Indian teams ever. Captain Dhoni is ranked #1 in the ICC ODI rankings and plays at number 7, just before the specialist bowlers come in, and the team's weakest link is probably Yuvraj Singh, and considering all his achievements, that says a lot about the batting lineup. Ishanth and Zaheer are frequently called the best new ball pair in the world, which no Indian opening bowling combination was every called before. The Kiwis on the other hand are definitely sporting one of their less accomplished and less experienced sides.
Considering all these factors, the 1-0 result is an underachievement. It could be argued that Australia or South Africa, in conditions that suit them more than their opponents, would have swept the series, as they did in their respective home series' against this team over the last 18 months.
Another major criticism is that being raised against Dhoni's captaincy. Had he declared a 100 runs earlier in the last test at Wellington, there was a better chance that India would win. He was apparently trying to ensure the series was bagged before trying to win that Test. He was similarly criticised when he took too long to declare against England in the second Test in India in Dec 2008 in Mohali, which made it very easy for England to draw the game and India took the series. Great teams are supposed to win every match, or go down trying.
However, putting safety first is also a matter of great pragmatism for the captain of a team that historically has lost far more than it has won. The win in NZ came after 41 years, and for many of those years the teams that came to NZ were generally regarded as favorites. In the Mohali Test even with a 300 run target (India eventually set 403) England could easily draw the game - a win was fairly unlikely. So the captain's stated objective of giving time to Yuvraj and Gambhir complete their hundreds was probably a good way to at least win the goodwill of his team - a rather shrewd way to gain something out of a stalemate.
When Dhoni does not push hard for a win that will improve the series victory margin, settling instead for the safety of a more facile win, he is actually showing respect to the opponent. That indicates an absence of arrogance, and hence overconfidence.
Also unlike India, Australia and South Africa play a lot more result oriented Tests. That might have something to do with the nature of the pitches in those countries, where they play about half of their matches. When the percentage of results goes up, the better team usually starts winning some of the matches which they would otherwise dominate but end up as draws.
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