India men's cricket team shattered multiple records but all for wrong reasons on Day 2 of the opening Test match against New Zealand in Chennai. After pulling off sensational wins against Bangladesh in the last red-ball cricket assignment, Rohit Sharma's Men in Blue were exposed by the Kiwi bowlers in Bengaluru on Thursday.
India registered their lowest-ever home total in a Test innings after being bowled out to 46 runs at M Chinnaswmay Stadium. New Zealand utilized only three bowlers, all pace options, to expose India's batting crisis as predicted by India TV earlier during the Bangladesh series.
There was only one change to India's star-studded batting unit with Sarfaraz Khan replacing injured Shubman Gill. But despite fielding a strong batting lineup, the hosts had no answers to Matt Henry and William O'Rourke's seam and swing at M Chinnaswamy.
Five players, including Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, registered ducks as Rishabh Pant emerged as the best batter with the top score of only 20. With two more matches to go on before the crucial Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting next month, India's batting is looking in a deep crisis once again.
Both Rohit and Virat have struggled for consistent with a bat in red-ball cricket this year while the likes of Shubman Gill and KL Rahul have failed to provide any stability in the middle order in the post-Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara era.
Captain Rohit Sharma, who now has scored 44 runs in his last 5 Test innings, revealed a 'bad call' to bat first on a rain-hit wicket in Bengaluru. India's batting attack showed no resistance against the Kiwis' pace attack and was put under pressure from the very beginning. Rohit conceded India's failed effort to challenge under pressure and said it's okay to make some bad calls after some impressive performances in red-ball cricket.
"You see and you try and make the judgement. Sometimes you make the right call, sometimes you don't, and I was on the other side of it this time around," Rohit said. "I'm hurting a little bit because I made that call. But see, for us as a team, I think these are the challenges.
"So, what if we put ourselves under pressure a little bit? We want to play well. We want to challenge ourselves. This time around, it didn't come off, the challenges that were thrown at us. We didn't respond well, and we found ourselves in a situation where we got bowled out for 46 runs. As a captain, it definitely hurts to see that number, but in 365 days you'll make two or three bad calls. That's okay."
