India vs NZ – Rohit Sharma ‘hurt’ after misjudging Bengaluru

In what appeared to be a bewildering move, Rohit chose to bat, opting for three spinners and two fast bowlers despite the first day being washed away by rain and the pitch being under covers for the better part of two days.

“So, if we put ourselves under a bit of pressure? We want to play well. We want to challenge ourselves. This time it didn’t come, the challenges thrown at us. We didn’t respond well, and to find ourselves in a situation where we scored 46 runs as captain, it’s really sad to see that number , but in 365 days you will make two or three calls.

India named three spinners in their XI – R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav – and left out fast bowler Akash Deep, who played two Tests against Bangladesh last month. As it turned out, the pitch had plenty of help from the fast bowlers, and India were reduced to 36 for 6 at lunch.

Rohit said the reason for choosing three spinners was the empty look of the pitch, and the fact that Kuldeep had success on a flat surface.

“Look, we felt like there wasn’t much grass on the field. We thought it would do whatever it needed to do in the first few sessions and then change as the game went on,” he said. “That’s right [it is] whenever we play in India, the first session is always critical and the wicket stays down and the spinners play.

“Like I said, there wasn’t much grass, so we realized that the reason for adding Kuldeep was because he bowled low balls and took wickets, so we expected the pitch to be a lot better than it was. clearly mismanagement of the field.”

Another talking point was Virat Kohli batting at No. 3 for the first time since 2016 because Shubman Gill was ineligible to play. In the previous six innings at number 3, Kohli scored just 97 runs at an average of 19.40. Those numbers hit another when he fell for a 12-ball duck, enjoying a delivery from William O’Rourke to leg gully. Rohit said that Kohli has stepped up so that he does not interfere with the players under him.

“Experienced players are the ones who have to carry that extra burden and this time it was Virat. He was the one who was ready to do that. [bat at No. 3],” said Rohit. “We asked him if he can handle the number 3 because Sarfaraz [Khan] … we wanted to give Sarfaraz his usual batting position [at] four and five, six maybe.

“But we didn’t want to change Rishabh and KL [Rahul] so Sarfaraz went for four and Virat batted for three. It’s a good sign actually, we have players coming in and taking that responsibility and facing the challenge. It is a good sign. After a long time, KL found himself at number 6, so we want to keep him…

Despite a tough day for India, Rohit was in good spirits, and started the press conference with a quip, “Chalao talwaar” [draw your swords]. It was also unusual for an Indian captain to face the media at the end of such a day during a Test, and Rohit admitted they will need to dig deep to come back after New Zealand finished 134 ahead with seven wickets in hand.

“I think we should stay in the game, we want to not let them down,” he said. “[They’ve scored] too many runs, obviously 180, so that’s 140 runs [134]so [keep them] as little as possible. The wicket looks like it’s going to stand up a bit, so we expect the pitch to play out like that. We have to hit hard in the second and try to see if we can make a game out of that.”