In the first Test match between India and New Zealand, the visitors defeated Rohit Sharma’s team by eight wickets. After the loss, many experts criticized team management’s decision in the match against the Kiwis, and the new candidate in the line is former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar. Manjrekar has also questioned the decision-making of Rohit Sharma at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
The home team suffered a surprising 8-wicket defeat to Tom Latham and his team, falling behind 0-1 in the ongoing three-match Test series.
New Zealand’s victory over India in Test cricket was their third overall and their first since 1988. It was Rohit Sharma’s third defeat as Test captain at home. With this, he has surpassed Virat Kohli in the unwanted list of most losses as captain at home ground.
With the first win against India, New Zealand is leading this three-match T20I series by 0-1, with the second match going to be played at Maharashtra Cricket Stadium, Pune.
Former Indian skipper, Virat Kohli is the best captain of India in the history of Test cricket and he has lost only two games on home soil. Rohit Sharma’s loss to New Zealand was his third Test defeat at home. This puts him ahead of Virat Kohli and ties him with MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and Bishan Singh Bedi, who also had the same number of home Test losses.
During a post-match discussion on ESPNcricinfo, Sanjay Manjrekar expressed his thoughts on Rohit Sharma’s captaincy. He highlighted that when New Zealand began their chase of 107 runs on the final day, Rohit opted to open with fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj.
Bumrah bowled a long spell and took two wickets, but Siraj couldn’t get any breakthroughs. Rohit also delayed bringing in Ravichandran Ashwin, only using him when there were just 10 runs left to defend.
“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. I can understand Siraj getting one or two overs and Bumrah getting a long spell. But Siraj getting 6 overs in that forespell, I think that is far too many and already a lot of runs on the board, and you had that little margin to chase.”
Manjrekar said that veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin could have had a big impact by challenging the New Zealand batters if he had bowled with Bumrah from the beginning, instead of Siraj.
“And another part is Aswhin. 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 inning,” Manjrekar added.
Fans and experts also criticized Team India for choosing to bat in overcast conditions at M Chinnaswamy. In the first inning Team India was bundled out on 46 runs, only Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal crossed the double-figure mark. They made a comeback in the second innings, where Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli got a fifty setting the tone, and then wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant got in with this solid 99 runs, while Sarfaraz Khan continued his domestic form and smashed 150 runs, his first hundred for India in the longest format of the team.
While Chasing the target of 107 runs, New Zealand only lost two wickets, picked by Jasprit Bumrah. However, Will Young(48) and Rachin Ravindra(39) took New Zealand home without losing any further wicket for the team.
