Indian national cricket team captain Rohit Sharma took full responsibility for India’s disastrous batting show in the first innings of the first Test against the New Zealand national cricket team.

The first Test of the three-match series finally began at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday, October 17, after the first day was washed out due to rain.

India delivers horrible batting performance

India won the toss and took the surprising decision to bat first. They made two changes in the lineup from the previous match as Shubman Gill and Akash Deep were replaced by Sarfaraz Khan and Kuldeep Yadav.

The decision to bat first turned out to be a nightmare for the Indian batsmen as 5 players managed a duck in the innings. Those players were Virat Kohli, Sarfaraz Khan, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Rohit Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj recorded single-digit scores, while Rishabh Pant (20) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (13) were the two batsmen who scored in double figures.

India were bowled out for 46 in 31.2 overs, leaving the cricket world in utter shock. It was the lowest total for India in a home innings and overall the lowest by any team on Indian soil. Additionally, it was India’s third-lowest total in Test history, behind 36 against Australia at Adelaide 2020 and 42 against England at Lord’s 1974.

It pains me to see this score of 46 as captain as it was my decision to bat first – Rohit Sharma

After India’s terrible show on Day 2, especially with the bat, Rohit Sharma, like a brave captain, came out to talk to reporters. He revealed that batting first was his decision and said it pained him to see the score of 46 runs on the board.

“It pains me to see this score of 46 as captain as it was my decision to bat first. But one or two bad decisions in a year is fine,” Rohit said after the day’s play.

Explaining the reason behind India’s bat-first move, Rohit Sharma said that they felt the conditions would only favor the pacers in the first session, and then the pitch would settle down.

The Indian captain further admitted that it was an error of judgment on his side in reading the pitch, which led to his team’s batting horror show.

“We felt there was no grass on the pitch, we thought he would do whatever in the first few sessions. And it will rotate as the game progresses. Whenever we play in India, the first session is critical and then the spinners come into play. The reason for bringing Kuldeep was that he took wickets on flat pitches. So we expected the field to be flatter than it was. Clearly, it was a miscalculation of the pitch, I didn’t read the pitch well enough. And today we find ourselves in this situation,” Rohit said.

We have been successful on those wickets, all the batsmen had some plan – Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma further emphasized the importance of having a perfect game plan to deal with the seamer threat in pace-friendly conditions.

According to the Indian captain, they had plans in place but failed to execute them in the first innings. Rohit Sharma explained:

“You can say that. We did everything we could for 46. There was help for the seamers and you need to plan for that.

“We’ve had success on those wickets, every batsman had some plan. But sometimes, you can’t execute what you’re planning. We had a bad day. But we’ve been a part of those games. It’s a challenge, and you have to challenge yourself. same.