Ind vs NZ, WTC – Rohit Sharma – I was not at my best as captain, and with the bat

Chasing 147 to get any possible WTC points from a series already conceded, India crashed and burned to 121 all out against the spin of Ajaz Patel and Glenn Phillips.

“Definitely, you know, something like this will be a very low point in my career, you know, having lost three games at home,” Rohit said at the post-match press conference. “And, yes, we, I fully take the responsibility for that as a captain and as a leader as well. I have not been at the best of my abilities right from the start of the series. And yeah, with the bat as well, I’ve not been good enough.”

“Right from the start, I said it. You know, I made a decision about batting first on that Bangalore pitch, which was not right,” he said. “And certain tactical errors also, which didn’t go my way. You obviously take chances with those decisions. Sometimes it comes off. Sometimes it doesn’t. And this time around, it didn’t come off, the certain decisions that I took. So, yeah, I was not at my best of my leadership. And probably cost us the series as well.”

“New Zealand played better than us throughout the series,” he said at the presentation. “There were lots of mistakes that we made throughout the series, and we have to accept it.

“The first and the second Test, we didn’t put enough runs on the board in the first innings. And we were very much behind the game. This game, we got that 30 [28]-runs lead and we felt that we were a little bit ahead of the game. That target was chaseable. All we had to do was a little bit of application, which we failed to do as a unit.”

In this chase in Mumbai, Rohit hit two fours in a run-a-ball 11, but fell when he couldn’t get his favourite shot – the pull – right against Matt Henry.

“Look, when you’re chasing a target like that, you want runs on the board as well. And that is something that was there in my mind,” Rohit said. “It just didn’t come off. When it doesn’t come off, it doesn’t look that great. There are certain ideas, certain methods that I go into bat with. Sometimes it doesn’t come off, and this series it hasn’t come off, which I am very disappointed with.”

“There were lots of mistakes that we made throughout the series, and we have to accept it.”

Rohit Sharma

“Obviously, it’s [his and Kohli’s lack of runs] a cause of concern without a doubt,” Rohit said. “If the batters are not performing, that is a cause of concern. But what’s done is done now. I think as a player, as a captain, as a team, we all have to look forward and see how we can correct what we didn’t manage to achieve here. There is a good opportunity for us to go and do something really, really special in Australia.

“But right now, it’s just trying to understand what we didn’t do right [against New Zealand], what are the things that we need to do better as a team. We made a lot of mistakes, so I think those mistakes need to be addressed and something that we will talk about. And then moving forward, when you land in Australia, I think it’s important to just focus on that particular series, the first Test match. You know, it’s a five Test match series, so it’s important to break down those Test series, those Test matches and focus on one Test and then just take it from there.”

As always, there were positives. In the batting department as well, where the younger players – Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, and Washington Sundar showed, at various points, that runs could be scored on tough pitches.

“Those guys showed how to bat on these surfaces,” Rohit said about the younger lot. “You have to be slightly ahead, and be proactive when you’re playing on a pitch like that. Which we all know. Which we have discussed many a time in the last three or four years. We are aware of what we need to do. It’s just that, this was an unfortunate series where it didn’t come off. We tried to do certain things, it didn’t come off. Which is why we lagged behind in the series.”