Last week, when India was bundled out for just 46, their third-lowest score in an innings of the Test match, most of the pundits pointed their fingers towards the conditions and how the home captain Rohit Sharma made a wrong decision to bat on a track which was under the covers for nearly four days.
India managed to display some strong character in the second innings of the Test match, putting in over 400 runs, despite having a deficit of around 350 runs at the end of the first innings of New Zealand, who at the end earned their maiden victory in a Test in India after 36 years.
That put the Rohit Sharma-led side under tremendous pressure because they are now in a do-or-die situation of losing their proud record of not losing any Test series at home since they defeated, last time against England in 2012/13.
The management decided to go with slow and low turned for the Pune Test match, which meant that batting in the fourth innings would be nothing short of a nightmare. Tom Latham, winning the toss, decided to bat first as the visitors cracked 259 in their first innings.
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Most of the Kiwi batters showed aggression from the start of the game and never allowed the spinners of India to get settled in the middle with their line and length. Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, both of whom were one of the biggest weapons for the home side in the last decade, were smashed around the park by the Blackcaps batters.
Ian Smith was stunned by the batting style of India during the 1st innings of the Pune Test
Having bundled the Tom Latham-led side for a decent score in the first innings, it was important for India to thump their authority with a huge day with the bat. Rohit went back to the pavilion, missing the swing of Tim Southee before Shubman Gill had no answer from Mitchell Santner.
Virat Kohli walked into the middle with so much energy at the start of the second day’s play, but on a score of one, he missed the full toss from the same bowler and saw his stumps getting broken after he tried to time the ball through mid-on for a boundary. Rishabh Pant punched a couple of boundaries beautifully before misreading the length of Glenn Phillips.
Sarfaraz Khan was batting well for his 11 runs, but once the runs and boundaries were dried up for India, he decided to go over midwicket and found William O’Rourke stationed at the place. Ravindra Jadeja nailed three boundaries and a couple of sixes for his 38 runs in 46 balls but, that wasn’t enough to save the home side from giving away a 103-run lead to New Zealand.
The renowned commentator, Ian Smith, has expressed his surprise at the batting approach of India and rated that innings worse than their 46 all-out in Bengaluru.
“Well, this is worse than 46 all out if you ask me. This is poor batting and shot selection. I can understand the first Test, but instead of playing themselves in, batting for time, India, for some reason, are going after the bowling.” The former wicket-keeper batter of New Zealand expressed while being on air.
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“They think they can just bash this New Zealand bowling line-up. This is only Day 2 of the Test match. There is ample time to go but, the way India is playing, none of them are going to be here that long.” The veteran claimed.
India will need to climb the mountain if they want to chase the score in the fourth innings of the Test.