The Wankhede Test against New Zealand provided a chance to bounce back but, apart from Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill, none of the Indian strikers rose to the occasion. What was most disappointing of all was the performance of former captain Rohit Sharma and the star player Virat Kohli. The two scored under 100 runs each in the entire three match series. There will be a lot of questions directed at India’s captain, mainly in regards to their performance, his own and that of Virat’s in particular. Rohit did not shy away from the fact that the seniors not scoring runs does raise concern.
“Lack of runs from seniors is a worry. But we cannot dwell on the past. As a player, as a captain, as a team, we can only look ahead and try to see what we can put right which we could not achieve here. We have a chance to make a difference in Australia. That is what we will concentrate on,”
One more time, Captain Rohit’s not so lethal aggression in dealing with the bowlers, when he threatened to take the batting crease against the odds of the situation, had him walking back. And possibly to the last time on this ground.
This made him go back after attempting to play the pull shot at waist height on Matt Henry.
The moment Rohit was out, the top edge went straight towards Glenn Phillips, with Henry running out to take the catch from midwicket – one of the best fielders in the game.
Having played well to almost complete a fine century knock of 146 balls, Gills expected the ball to turn away, but instead a Patel (4/43) delivery went straight and crashed on the off-stump.
Kohli (1) once again strode out to the pitch with his bat rested on his shoulder probably in a bid to depict confidence only for him to fall short on the reach of a floated delivery that took the edge of his bat to the first slip.
