The Test captain of the Indian side, Rohit Sharma, decided to make his presence at the post-match presentation after the home side was bundled out for 46, their third-lowest innings score of a red-ball game, on the second day of the opening Test of the three-match series against New Zealand at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Rohit Sharma struggled at the opening spot for his two runs against the seam and swing of the visiting bowlers. And it continued to grow among the other following batters of the side. Five of their batters were dismissed for ducks, including their former captain Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, and the two premier all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
“On a pitch where there was assistance for seamers, and now that we got out for 46, you can say the shot selection wasn’t up to the mark. It was a bad day. Sometimes you want to do something but cannot execute.” The leader expressed at the end of the day in the presser.
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The home side decided to go with three spinners, and that decision led them to bat first on a track that had been under the covers for nearly four days. The opponents, on the other hand, went with three fast bowlers in their team.
“We thought, it won’t help seamers much after the first session or so. There wasn’t much grass too. We thought it would be flat. It was a misjudgment, and I couldn’t read the pitch well.” Rohit Sharma addressed.
The Nagpur-born also admitted how bad they had been in their fielding that day, dropping a few simple chances that didn’t help their cause at the end of the day.
Rohit Sharma gives a vital update on the injury status of Rishabh Pant
During their bowling in the second innings of the game, Rishabh Pant, who made his comeback in the longest format of the game after nearly 18 months during the two-match Test series against Bangladesh and also celebrated his century, left the field having injured his knee while keeping wickets.
Devon Conway missed the ball, which hurried onto the wicketkeeper’s knees. The wicketkeeper looked in serious pain while the physio was attending to him in the middle and decided to leave the field at the end.
“He has got a swelling on his knee. It’s the same knee on which he got the surgery. We don’t want to take risks. Hopefully, he’ll be back in this match.” Rohit Sharma noted during the presser.
Shubman Gill was injured during the Test match, which ruled him out of the game. That would have been a great chance for KL Rahul to get promoted to the number three position, but instead, the team management decided to send Virat Kohli up in the batting order.
The decision didn’t work well, and he was undone by a bouncy delivery, while Rahul also struggled in the same manner.
“We don’t want to touch KL’s batting position much. He has found a place at six so, let’s give him a rope there. Same with Sarfaraz, we wanted to give him a similar position where he bats. So Virat was the one who wanted to take the responsibility. And that’s a good sign of players taking responsibility.” Rohit Sharma painted the reason for the decision.
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Most of the New Zealand pacers were excellent with the ball getting assistance with the new ball. Matt Henry led the chart with his five-wicket haul in the game, followed by the pace of William O’Rourke.
“There was assistance, and they did well. We didn’t apply ourselves to the best of our ability. We didn’t play well simply.” Rohit Sharma concluded.