On their road to the third consecutive final of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2024-25, the Indian team under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma has received a body blow with an eight-wicket defeat in the opening game of the three-match Test series against New Zealand, who earned their first red-ball win in these conditions after 36 years.
Coming into the fifth day, the home side had 107 runs to defend, with the opposition carrying all the ten wickets in hand. But on the second ball of the day, Jasprit Bumrah provided them the breakthrough to keep believing in the Rohit Sharma-led side. Devon Conway Struggled but, the unbeaten third-wicket stand of 75 runs guided them over the line.
The Nagpur-born addressed that they trusted making a game from the low target and didn’t pay much attention to the iffy weather of Bengaluru.
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“When you come here, you want to play. You don’t think about the weather and conditions much. Unless you believe in winning, it won’t happen. This team is not going to give up so easily, and that’s what we did. We came with the belief of trying to pull the game off. But it was just not for us.” Rohit Sharma addressed at the post-match press conference.
During India’s first innings of bowling, Rishabh Pant took a blow on his knees, which went under operation after his fatal accident and missed the rest of the game behind the stumps. However, he batted well for his 99-run knock. But the question stands if he would be able to be fit for the second Test in Pune.
“About his injury, he has had a massive operation on his knee. It’s better to be careful. When he was batting, he wasn’t comfortably running. We need to be extra careful. He has gone through a lot of trauma in the last couple of years.” The Indian captain expressed.
“Not easy to keep with pain. In his innings, no one knows what goes through his mind. Only he knows it. That’s the kind of freedom we need to give it to him. We just told him to please understand the situation but that’s Rishabh.” Rohit Sharma pointed out in the presser.
The Uttarakhand-born made a supreme comeback in the format with his comeback century against Bangladesh at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Rohit Sharma urges to remain calm for the second Test match in Pune
It’s not the first time that the Blue Brigade would be raring to make a comeback in the series. At the start of the year, they lost the first Test in Hyderabad but went on to capture the series with a 4-1 margin. Even during the 2016/17 series against Australia, they were blown away in the opening game before winning the series 2-1.
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“Every time we play the first Test, you don’t want to lose it. You don’t want to play casual cricket. You want to win it. We came pretty close against England. Here also we fought back despite that first day. I am not going to look too much into this Test because those first three hours are not going to judge this team.” Rohit Sharma noted during the press conference.
The veteran claimed that he won’t need to give suggestions to the players, who are well experienced to know what’s required for the present. The second Test will begin on October 24 at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium.
