When India won the second of the two-match Test series against Bangladesh at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur, Rohit Sharma, the captain of the Blue Brigade, was hailed as the best captain of the country in the longest format of the game because of how they changed the rhythm of the game despite two days of rain.
But, on the first of the three-match Test series at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Rohit Sharma, on winning the toss, decided to bat first under overcast conditions on a track, which was under covers for nearly four days. However, the opponent captain, Tom Latham, also desired to be batting first.
The home side included three spinners in the team and kept Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj as the two pacers in the eleven, while the Blackcaps went with three fast bowlers in the form of Tim Southee, Matt Henry, William O’Rourke, all of whom wreaked havoc in the course of the contest.
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Even some of the decisions that Rohit Sharma took with his bowlers and the field setup were surprising. At the end of the game, one will mostly point the 46 in the first innings behind the defeat, but the 137-run stand for the eighth wicket between Rachin Ravindra and Tim Southee cracked the code for the Kiwis.
Sanjay Manjrekar blames the poor leadership of Rohit Sharma
The former middle-order batter for the Indian team, Sanjay Manjrekar, has openly criticized the poor leadership of the Indian captain for the Bengaluru Test. He believed that some of the veteran’s decisions within the bowling department were poor and led them to defeat after 36 years at home in a Test against the Kiwis.
Rohit Sharma handed seven overs to Siraj on the fifth day when the New Zealand side needed 107 runs to chase. Most of the fans and pundits of the game expected Ravichandran Ashwin to start with Bumrah from the other end, who sent back the opponent captain on the second ball of the day’s play. Sanjay also felt that the Indian captain failed to use Ashwin in a better way for the Test match.
“I can understand Siraj getting one or two overs and Bumrah getting a long spell. But Siraj getting six overs in that for a spell, I think that is far too many and already a lot of runs on the board, and you had that little margin to chase. And another part is Ashwin.” The former Mumbai batter highlighted during a recent discussion on ESPNcricinfo.
Rohit Sharma could have easily brought Bumrah when the partnership between Southee and Ravindra started to grow, as the former drilled a few big shots out of the park for his 65-run knock in 73 balls, with the help of five boundaries and four sixes at a strike rate of 90.
Ravindra, on the other hand, clubbed a brilliant century of 134 runs, based on 13 boundaries and four sixes at a strike rate of over 85.
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“When there is no lavish turn on the pitch, the captain tends to use him with a new ball. He would have been tough for the Kiwi batters had he started with Bumrah, and even if he had come in in the fourth over of the innings.” Manjrekar added.
“The thing with pacers, you might get wickets, but there are always runs coming through edges. I was a bit surprised; I think tactically for Rohit Sharma, this Test match wasn’t his greatest.” He concluded in the interaction.