About three and a half weeks ago, Team India had achieved the result against Bangladesh in the Kanpur Test within 2 days. In a very surprising manner, Team India defeated Bangladesh in this match which was badly affected by rain and won the series 2-0. This was considered to be the best victory of Team India achieved under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma and it was seen as a moment that established the legacy of his captaincy. In the next three and a half weeks, all this heritage came to the floor. With the defeat against New Zealand first in Bengaluru and then in Pune Test, Team India lost the series at home after 12 years. This series, especially this Pune Test match, did not prove to be good for Rohit in any way – neither batting, nor fielding, nor captaincy which has been considered his biggest specialty.
Let us just talk about the Pune Test, where in just 3 days, New Zealand ended the game by trapping Team India in its own trap. On Friday, October 26, New Zealand gave a target of 359 runs to Team India and then in less than two and a half sessions, they bowled out India’s second innings for 245 runs and won the match by 113 runs. In this way, with two consecutive wins, New Zealand has won the Test series, while the third Test match is yet to be played.
Defensive captaincy proved costly
Considering Team India’s historic win in the Kanpur Test and New Zealand’s past record in India, it was believed that under Rohit’s captaincy, Team India would be wiped out but the opposite seems to be happening. If the wrong decision of batting first despite rain in the Bengaluru Test was not enough, then Rohit surprised many with the decisions he took under his captaincy in the Pune Test. After losing the first test, the decision to prepare a spin-friendly pitch in Pune backfired. Then, the decision to include two fast bowlers in the playing eleven on a spin-friendly pitch added to the problem.
It was certain that Jasprit Bumrah would play but India did not get any benefit by including Akash Deep. He bowled only 6 overs in both the innings. In his place, Kuldeep Yadav or Axar Patel could have got a place in the team. Not only this, Rohit’s captaincy proved to be very defensive in both the innings of New Zealand, where instead of setting aggressive fields during the spells of his spinners, Rohit took only a few wickets. After the shots, fielders were deployed directly on the boundary, which New Zealand batsmen easily took advantage of by taking singles and doubles.
Worst performance in batting
If we talk about batting, the Indian captain is continuously going through bad form. Even against Bangladesh, he could score only 43 runs in 4 innings, while he definitely scored a half-century in the second innings of the Bengaluru Test against New Zealand. In Pune, he could score only 8 runs in both the innings combined. In the first innings, he was bowled by fast bowler Tim Southee with an excellent ball. Among the 40 wickets that fell in this match, Rohit was the only batsman who was dismissed by the pacer. His 8 runs were the lowest score by an Indian captain in a home Test match since 2008. Earlier in 2008, against South Africa, Anil Kumble had scored only 5 runs in both the innings.
All the shortcomings remained in fielding
If the failure in captaincy and disappointment in batting was not less, then Rohit could not do anything special in fielding also. The Indian captain was constantly deployed in the slips to bowl the spinners and generally he has been a very good fielder, especially in terms of taking catches, he is no less than anyone but when times are bad, even the one sitting on the elephant can be The dog bites. Something similar happened with Rohit also. He dropped one easy catch each in both the innings, due to which the team had to suffer the consequences. Apart from this, he misfielded many times, due to which extra runs were lost. Overall, the Pune Test and this series have proved to be a tough test for Rohit, in which he does not seem to be successful yet.
