India National Cricket Team captain Rohit Sharma has taken full responsibility for India’s disastrous batting show in the first innings of the first Test against the New Zealand National Cricket Team.
The first Test of the three-match series finally got underway at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Thursday, October 17, after the first day was washed out due to rain.
India Deliver A Horrible Batting Performance
India won the toss and made a shocking decision to bat first. They made two changes to the line-up from the previous match as Shubman Gill and Akash Deep were replaced by Sarfaraz Khan and Kuldeep Yadav.
The decision to bat first turned out to be a nightmare for the Indian batters as 5 players bagged a duck in the innings. Those players were Virat Kohli, Sarfaraz Khan, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Rohit Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj registered single-digit scores, while Rishabh Pant (20) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (13) were the two batters who scored in double digits.
India were bowled out for 46 in 31.2 overs, leaving the cricket world in absolute shock. It was the lowest total for India in an innings at home and, overall, the lowest by any team on Indian soil. Also, it was India’s third-lowest total in Test history, behind 36 against Australia in Adelaide 2020 and 42 against England at Lord’s 1974.
I am hurting to see this score of 46 as captain as it was my call to bat first – Rohit Sharma
After India’s awful show on Day 2, especially with the bat, Rohit Sharma, like a brave captain, himself came out to speak to the reporters. He revealed that batting first was his call and said he was hurt to see the score of 46 runs on the board.
“I am hurting to see this score of 46 as captain as it was my call to bat first. But one or two bad calls in a year is all right,” Rohit said after the day’s play.
Explaining the reason behind India’s bat-first move, Rohit Sharma said that they felt that the conditions would only favor pacers in the first session, and then the pitch would settle down.
The Indian captain further admitted that it was a misjudgment from his side while reading the pitch, which led to the batting horror show of his side.
“We felt there wasn’t grass on the pitch, we thought it would do whatever it would do in the first couple of sessions. And it will turn as the game goes on. Whenever we play in India, the first session is critical, and then spinners come into play. The reason to bring Kuldeep was he has taken wickets on flat pitches. So, we expected the pitch to be flatter than it was. Clearly, it was a misjudgment of the pitch, I didn’t read the pitch well enough. And we are in this situation today,” said Rohit.
We have been successful on such wickets, all batters had some plan – Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma further emphasized the importance of having a perfect game plan to deal with the threat of seamers in pace-friendly conditions.
According to Indian skipper, they had plans in place but were not successful in executing it in the first innings. Rohit Sharma elaborated:
“You can say that. We got all out for 46. There was help for seamers, and you need to make game plans for that.
“We have been successful on such wickets, all batters had some plan. But sometimes, you can’t execute what you’re planning. We had a bad day. But we have been a part of such matches. It’s a challenge, and you got to challenge yourself.
