Deflated Rohit takes blame for India’s humiliating whitewash that seen them lose a home test series 3-0 for the first time.
Deflated Rohit Sharma fronted up to the media in the aftermath of the 3-0 series whitewash against New Zealand.
Following a disappointing and India’s first-ever 3-0 home loss, Rohit Sharma acknowledged that he was “not at my best” as captain and batsman and that his side “failed as a unit” due to “lots of mistakes.”
India crashed and burned to 121 all out against the spin of Ajaz Patel and Glenn Phillips as they chased 147 to salvage any WTC points from a series already lost.
“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.”
There was some hope for the hosts when Rishabh Pant counterattacked with a 64 off 57 balls. However, it was 29 for 5 prior to then, and everything swiftly came apart after Pant was hit by a controversial third-umpire’s call. When Rohit reflected about the entire series, he was disappointed in his own choices.
“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.”