The Test captain of India, Rohit Sharma, has joined an unwanted list of captains for the Blue Brigade on the back of their second defeat in the three-match Test series against New Zealand at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune, as they were blown away for a 113-run lose.
This defeat for the Rohit Sharma-led side broke the 12-year proud record of the home side where they didn’t lose a single home Test series at home since being defeated by England during the 2012/13 season. Once they lost the opening game of this series in Bengaluru, the pressure was always on the captain and coach, Gautam Gambhir, to turn it around.
India decided to go with a slow and low-turner for the second encounter of the series. They lost the toss and were asked to bat second on the surface, where chasing was always expected to be a nightmare job. The batters of the side weren’t strong enough against the spin bowlers, and that move backfired.
Rohit Sharma joins Kapil Dev and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi for this record
The rare failure of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja didn’t boil down in a good manner for the home side, who gave away over 250 runs in the first innings of the game. This could have been worse had Washington Sundar not made their comeback with a seven-wickets in the first innings.
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If the first defeat of the series for Rohit Sharma and co. Coming on the back of their issues against the pacers in cloudy conditions, their batters were exposed to the quality spin of Mitchell Santer in the second. The Kiwi-left arm spinner picked up 14 wickets in the affair, which is two more than the combination of Jadeja and Ashwin in the entire series so far.
The home side gave away a lead of over 100 runs in their first innings. Even on the track, the Tamil Nadu off-spinner was struggling to find a line and length consistently, as the left-handed batters of the Blackcaps, Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, and Tom Latham, were easily taking singles, besides using the sweeps and reverse sweeps.
Even Jadeja, who has been renowned for bowling on the same point for a long period, wasn’t doing the same. His average in the first two games of the series is his third-worst at home in his entire career, while in the same criteria, Ashwin had his second-worst bowling average in home Test matches.
The form of captain Rohit Sharma has also been a headache for the selectors, especially going into the five-match away series in Australia for the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. The Nagpur-born has now faced his fourth defeat at home in the Test matches.
The veteran became the first Indian captain to lose three home red-ball games in a calendar year in 41 years, as the last man to do so was the World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev, under whose leadership, the Blue Brigade was defeated in three out of their five Tests against the West Indies in 1983.
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The overall record of losing most Tests by an Indian captain at home in a calendar year belongs to Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, who lost three against Australia and one against New Zealand in 1969. Rohit Sharma is on three on the list, with two defeats in the ongoing series and one against England in Hyderabad at the start of the year.
He will look to avoid the top place when they meet the Blackcaps one final time on November 01 at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.