Follow UsRohit Sharma admitted India were outplayed by New Zealand and blamed the batters for their first Test series defeat at home after 12 years. The Men in Blue were bundled out for just 46 in the first innings of the opening Test in Bengaluru and lost the game by eight wickets. Then in Pune, India got out for 156 and conceded a first-innings lead of 103 runs. They lost the match by 113 runs.
“Disappointing. It's not what we expected. Got to give credit to New Zealand - they played better than us. We failed to capitalise on certain moments. We failed to respond to those challenges. And we sit here today,” said Rohit, who registered scores of 0 and 8 in the second Test.
In the first innings, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Ravindra Jadeja touched the 30-run mark but none of them could go past 38. Even in the second essay, these three were the only batters who looked slightly comfortable in the middle. Chasing a target of 359, India were bundled out for 245, with Mitchell Santner taking 13 wickets in the game.
“Didn't think we batted well enough to get runs on the board. You've got to pick 20 wickets to win, yes, but batters have to put runs on the board. Was a great fightback to restrict them to 250-odd but we knew it was going to be challenging. When they started off, they were 200/3 and for us to come back and get them bowled out for 259 was a great effort,” added Rohit.
“Wasn't a pitch where a lot was happening. We just didn't bat well enough. Things would've been slightly different had we got a bit closer in the first innings. We want to show up well at Wankhede and try and win that Test. It's a collective failure. I'm not somebody who would blame just the batters or the bowlers. We will come out with better intent, better ideas and better methods at Wankhede.”
The third and final Test will be played in Mumbai from November 1.
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