NEW DELHI: It was an overcast morning, the pitch had been under covers for a couple of days due to rain but India captain Rohit Sharma chose to bat first in what was a brave call against New Zealand.
The move clearly backfired as the hosts were bundled out for only 46, their third lowest total in Tests and lowest total in Tests at home.
For the visitors, Matt Henry starred with 5/15 and William ORourke took 4/22 as the Kiwis made most of the conditions in the morning session.India’s batting show was very embarrassing as six batters didn’t even disturb the scorers and only two reached double digits.
By lunch, India were crumbling with only 34 runs on the board and six batters were back in the hut.
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Rohit (2), Virat Kohli (0), Sarfaraz Khan (0), KL Rahul (0), Ravindra Jadeja (0) and Ravichandran Ashwin (0) failed to get going in conditions which offered lot of assistance to the seamers early on.
This is the first time that four of the top seven Indian batters have got out for a duck in a home Test match, and 34 runs is the lowest at the fall of the sixth wicket for India at home since 1969.
The previous lowest was 27 runs against New Zealand in Hyderabad.
India batters were clearly exposed against the moving ball and apart from Jaiswal and Pant, none spent time in the middle. Wickets kept falling one after another and the questionable call to bat first clearly backfired.
Not just the toss, India also made change to their bowling combination and added an extra spinner in Kuldeep Yadav and benched Akash Deep for this fixture. The sun was out in the second session and it remains to be seen how much spin would be on offer.
The series is not off to a good start for Rohit Sharma and Co. and they would hope the bowlers keep them in the contest with a solid show.
India have gone heavy on spin for the opening game of the series and would hope R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav can turn the game their way.
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