India suffered their first-ever Test series whitewash at home, consisting of three or more Tests, as New Zealand etched their name into history books on Sunday, November 3. Defending 147 in the final innings of the third Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Ajaz Patel's six-wicket haul led the visitors to bowl the Men in Blue out for 121.
A disappointed Indian captain Rohit Sharma took responsibility for the embarrassing whitewash. "I fully take the responsibility of this as a captain. I have not been at my best," Rohit said in the post-match press conference after India lost the third game by 25 runs.
Rohit had a horrific series with the bat. Barring one fifty in Bengaluru, the India captain got into the double digits only twice in the other four innings. He stressed on his underwhelming performance, saying he wasn't at his best. "Starting with the toss in Bengaluru and many tactical errors throughout the series. I have not been at my best and that probably cost us the series," the skipper added.
Meanwhile, there are a lot of question marks over Rohit's ultra-aggressive approach with the bat in the just concluded home season. It seems that he wants to go all guns blazing and is not trusting his defence. However, the 37-year-old believed it is not true. "I haven't lost faith in my defence. I need to spend more time out there. It's been only these two series that I haven't batted well. As you grow, you try to evolve and as a batter I am trying to do that. I will relook at my game and see what I can do," he said.
Coming back to the match, Rishabh Pant kept India in the hunt with his fabulous knock of 64. While the other batters were finding it extremely hard to play the spin of Ajaz Patel, Pant was taking on the left-arm spinner with ease. He ramped, swept and hit Patel but a contentious bat-pad catch dismissal ended his knock in the second session with India still needing 41 more. Washington Sundar and Ravichandran Ashwin hung around but with pressure mounting, Ashwin was dismissed caught behind off a reverse sweep. Glenn Phillips then cleaned Akash Deep before Patel took the final wicket of Washington.
