Captain Rohit Sharma is not ready to hit the panic button after India lost the Pune Test, and with it the series, against New Zealand. It’s the first home series loss since the defeat to England in 2012-13, but Rohit said one didn’t “need to overreact”.
“Look at the number of games we have won in India. I think, I was just watching the television, out of the 54 Test matches we have won 42. That’s nearly 80 per cent of the Test matches we have won. So, there are more good things that have happened than the bad things. So why look at bad things so much?
“Of course, you lose a series here and there. For a good 12 years, we had that great run which meant that we were doing a lot of good things in those periods.”
Rohit said he would have a “quiet chat with certain individuals”, but insisted that the idea was not to make a spectacle out of it.
“You don’t need to overreact. But you need to have a quiet chat with certain individuals and let them know where they are at and what, as a team, we require from them. I don’t think you need to make them sit in a team room on a one-on-one basis and go through their innings and tell them this is what you should be doing. I don’t think this is the right forum to do that.
“Just because we have lost a series, I don’t think there is anything that we need to
talk differently or do differently. But yeah, we need to find ways to come out of those situations.
“I do not doubt anyone’s ability. I won’t do much postmortem, but batters must come with their plans and trust in the plans like New Zealand batters showed.
“Of course, it (series defeat) is important to look at, but... I don’t want to create that kind of environment where people start doubting themselves, people start taking unnecessary pressure,” Rohit explained.
Apart from India’s batting failure, senior spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have not really performed as per expectations. But the captain defended them.
“They (Ashwin and Jadeja) are expected to run through teams and win matches for us. I don’t think it is fair, it is our collective responsibility to win. Both of them have had such huge contributions in 18 (home) series wins.”
New Zealand
1st innings 259
India
1st innings 156
New Zealand
2nd innings (Overnight 198/5)
T. Blundell b Jadeja 41
G. Phillips not out 48
M. Santner c Bumrah b Jadeja 4
T. Southee c Rohit b Ashwin 0
A. Patel c Sundar b Jadeja 1
W. O’Rourke run out 0
Extras: (lb-5, nb-3) 8
Total: (all out, 69.4 overs) 255
Fall of wickets: 6/231, 7/237, 8/238, 9/241
Bowling: Ashwin 25-2-97-2, Sundar 19-0-56-4, Jadeja 19.4-3-72-3, Bumrah 6-1-25-0
India
2nd innings
Y. Jaiswal c Mitchell b Santner 77
R. Sharma c Young b Santner 8
S. Gill c Mitchell b Santner 23
V. Kohli lbw Santner 17
R. Pant run out 0
W. Sundar c Young b Phillips 21
S. Khan b Santner 9
R. Jadeja c Southee b Patel 42
R. Ashwin c Mitchell b Santner 18
A. Deep c Ravindra b Patel 1
J. Bumrah not out 10
Extras: (b-12, lb-6, nb-1) 19
Total: (all out, 60.2 overs) 245
Fall of wickets: 1/34, 2/96, 3/127, 4/127, 5/147, 6/165, 7/167, 8/206, 9/229
Bowling: Southee 2-0-15-0, O’Rourke 1-0-5-0, Santner 29-2-104-6, Patel 12.2-0-43-2, Phillips 16-0-60-1
New Zealand won by 113 runs
MoM: Mitchell Santner
