Few decisions in cricket history have been as baffling as Rohit Sharma’s decision to bat first in overcast conditions against New Zealand in Bengaluru. After winning the toss, the Indian captain opted to test himself and his batsmen against a relentless New Zealand attack, tailor-made for such conditions.

As it turned out, the move backfired as no Indian batsman could apply himself in the middle and it went down like a pack of cards. In the end, they were grouped at just 46, the lowest total ever recorded by a team in Asia.

India’s top scorer was Rishabh Pant, who scored 20 runs and was only the second batsman after Yashasvi Jaiswal (13) to cross the double-digit mark for India. As many as five batsmen, including Virat Kohli, were dismissed for a duck.

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Meanwhile, the Kiwi pacers were absolutely flawless in the conditions closer to home, needing just 31.2 overs to break through a strong Indian line-up. Matt Henry took five wickets for 15 runs, while William O’Rourke dismissed four batsmen in his first innings in India.

Rohit Sharma accepts error in judgment while reading speech

After the conclusion of the day, Rohit Sharma attended the press conference, where he accepted that he did not read the speech correctly. Rohit explained that he thought the track would have something for pacers early on before it became flat for batsmen.

“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 are in this situation.”

Not only Rohit but Tom Latham, the New Zealand captain, also wanted to bat first but was denied after losing the toss. So, he didn’t read the conditions right either, or maybe it’s just that India batted badly.

No matter how extreme the surface, going all out at 46 is never a good effort, and most of the Indian batsmen played rash shots. Yes, Rohit and the management misread the conditions, but that should not be an excuse for such a lackluster batting show.

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