New Delhi. No one had thought that the Indian cricket team would lose 3-0 in the Test series against New Zealand. Even the visiting team itself would not have imagined that it would clean sweep the series which has not won any Test match in India for 35 years. The biggest reason for the defeat of the Indian team was its batting. If the opening pair failed to form a partnership, runs were not scored in the middle order. Batsmen like captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were out after playing very bad shots.
No opening partnership
At one time victory seemed easy for the Indian team in the Mumbai Test but the match got lost. The biggest reason behind this was the opening pair not being able to form a partnership. Achieving the small score of 147 runs with two and a half days of play in the match was not a difficult task for India’s powerful batting order. The pair of Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal could not give a solid start to the team. The aggressive batting of the captain proved to be a mistake to achieve a small score.
Middle order failed miserably
After the failure of the opening pair, it is the job of the middle order of any team to stop the fall of wickets but this could not happen in the Mumbai Test. In the first innings, India had lost 4 wickets for just 84 runs, whereas in the second innings, half the team had returned at the score of 29 runs. Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and Sarfaraz Khan were out after scoring 1-1 runs in the second innings.
poor shot selection
The way captain Rohit Sharma was out against New Zealand while chasing the target of 147 runs, it was not necessary to play at that time. Talking about Shubman Gill, even after scoring 90 runs in the first innings, he failed to read the ball of Ajaz Patel in the second innings. He released the ball coming on the stumps and picked up the bat and the bails flew away. Virat Kohli was out in both the innings of the Mumbai Test by hitting the ball with the bat like a child. If such an experienced batsman is out like this then it is natural to raise questions.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli failed together
The flop of experienced Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in this series was a disappointment for the Indian team. The captain comes to the top order and scores runs while Kohli takes charge of the middle order. Nothing like this was seen in all three matches of this series. Rohit Sharma scored 2, 52, 0, 8, 18 and 11 runs while Kohli’s innings of 0, 70, 1,17, 4 and 1 were seen in the five matches of the series. Both scored a half-century, which is not enough considering the stature of both of them because this innings did not help the team win.
Tags: gautam gambhir, india vs new zealand, Rohit Sharma
FIRST PUBLISHED: November 3, 2024, 14:09 IST