Watching the blood drain out of the Black Caps’ effort in the third test against India was not completely unexpected.
India is damn good at home. New Zealand has won just two tests in 34 attempts there and is not alone in struggling on the subcontinent.
Australia has not won a test in India since 2004.
It has been six years since South Africa tasted success there.
The West Indies have to wind the clock back to 1994, while the best Sri Lanka has managed is a draw.
Given that caveat, there was no shame in the 3-0 series defeat.
But watching the Black Caps lose nine wickets in the final session felt like a slip backwards after a good couple of years in the whites.
New Zealand cricket great Glenn Turner, who helped the country secure its first away test win against India in 1969 with a half century in the second innings, said the plot felt very familiar.
"I think it is more of the same on the subcontinent when they play on turning pitches," Turner said when asked for his thoughts on the series.
For the Black Caps to be more competitive away from home, Turner believes the national body needs to invest more in the New Zealand A programme.
"This is just another wake-up call to take it seriously."
That said, some of the techniques were far from impressive.
"Where you look to hit the ball or not hit the ball against the various types of spin is critical. If you don’t get that sorted, then it is a downward spiral from there.
"You shouldn’t be tackling certain shots. I look at it purely from a technical point of view, really. And you despair, really, at that fact there is still a lot of work to be done.
"There is a lot of talk about culture and attitude but there is no substitute for skill and that is what has to be sorted."
Former captain Ross Taylor was one of the batsmen who performed well below his best during the series.
He scored 89 runs at an average of 17.8 and got out slog sweeping for 32 in the fateful third test.
Frankly, he looked like he was trying to hit his way back into nick.
He was not the only offender.
It appeared the New Zealand team had given up on the idea of survival and had adopted a more hopeful brand of cricket.
"I don’t mind the so-called positive approach but it has to backed up by good decision-making and skill. And Taylor, in the innings you are talking about, he obviously did decide that he was going to be positive.
"But to introduce the slog sweep for the one that he got out to — he let himself down by doing that. Up until then he had played some good shots and then all of a sudden that shot which has really let him down quite a lot over the years."
"And yet the long innings he has played, and played very well in, he has managed to curb that and it makes you wonder why he does not repeat that more often."
Turner was disappointed with Kane Williamson’s production as well and felt taking an off stump guard left the New Zealand captain too vulnerable to lbws.
Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed Williamson four times during the series and two of the dismissals were by way of the lbw.
"In Kane’s case and others, [they were] looking to score in areas which are not on. Hitting an off-spinner on a turning track through the off side is always fraught with danger. You shouldn’t be opening yourself up to hit it through the off side because, if it turns sharply back at you, you’re in real trouble."
On the perennial issue of Martin Guptill, Turner felt it was time for the opener to drop down the order to No 5 if he was going to be persisted with.
While Guptill is a world-beater in coloured clothing, he has been "found wanting" in test cricket.
"It is OK in a one-day game because, at most, you’ve only got two people catching. If you can see off the first eight overs, they bring in their other bowlers ... so that has helped him.
"But, in a test situation, I think that he would be better used in the middle order."
Turner felt the selectors missed an opportunity to blood Auckland opener Jeet Raval on the tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa and wondered whether it was a case of the new guy just being easier to leave out.
