A collective failure led to defeat, says India captain Rohit

India captain Rohit Sharma greets New Zealand skipper Tom Latham after the second Test.
| Photo Credit: K BHAGYA PRAKASH

Eleven years and 10 months since conceding a series to England in December 2012, India’s 18-series unbeaten streak in Tests at home came to an end on Saturday when New Zealand completed a 113-run rout in the second Test and took a 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

The loss could end up being a huge blow beyond the breach of India’s fortress at home. After all, the losses in consecutive weeks have meant India will have to win four of the remaining six Tests in the cycle to confirm a slot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.

Captain Rohit Sharma, though, played down the WTC prospects. “It’s too early to think about WTC. I am just hurting because we lost the game. I can’t think what lies ahead and can it affect our chances and all that stuff,” he added.

“We didn’t play well enough in these two games and that is hurting. We lost the series, that is hurting clearly. But there are things that we need to do well as a unit, not just the batters but also the bowlers. It’s a collective failure from the bowlers and the batters. Everyone has to take the blame.”

But Rohit did not hesitate from underlining the failure of the batting unit being the primary cause of losing consecutive Test matches at home and losing a Test series in India against New Zealand for the first time.

“What we wanted to do in this series didn’t happen due to our batters, but I can’t doubt anyone’s ability because everyone has a lot of ability and these guys have won all the matches that we have won in the last series, so I don’t want to post-mortem this,” Rohit said.

“Yes, we can see what we should do differently in such situations, all the batters should come up with their own plan and trust it. New Zealand batters have shown that if you play with a method and put pressure on the bowler then it will work.”

Rohit also refrained from pressing the panic button despite the two losses. “It happened in two Tests. We have won 18 series in India, so it means we have done a lot of good things. In this series, we might not have been able to bat the way we should have but such things happen.”