New Zealand ended India's dream run at home in Test cricket after taking a 2-0 lead in the three-match series on Saturday. The Kiwis defeated Rohit Sharma's men by 113 runs on Day 3 of the second Test in Pune to register their first-ever Test series win in India.
India lost the first Test in Bengaluru by 8 wickets but very few had predicted a series loss for the world no.1 team in the ICC rankings. India next tour Australia in the five-match Test series starting on November 22 and are yet to secure the World Test Championship 2023-25 final qualification.
A series loss against the Kiwis exposed India's inconsistency with a bat and after the game, captain Rohit Sharma also admitted that the batters 'failed to respond' to challenges in Pune.
Rohit bravely faced reporters and journalists in the post-match press conference at MCA Stadium and cooled down the 'crisis talks' by highlighting India's unbelievable record at home in Tests since 2012-13. India was enjoying a record 18-series win run in Tests at home and had won 42 of 54 matches before the New Zealand series.
Rohit said that he won't overreact just because of one Test series loss at home in the last 12 years. The veteran opener also defended his players and refused to blame any individual for India's loss, saying they will stick with their plans for the Mumbai Test.
"I am not going to overreact after this defeat. You need to chat with certain players," Rohit said in the press conference. "There's no need to sit in a corner and discuss each innings. We have won 18 series in a row at home, so, we have done a good job. In this series, we didn't bat as well as required. These things happen. We have scored on challenging wickets.
"I don't want to dwell on these two poor Tests much. Two or three bad innings happen. What we wanted to do in this series with the bat didn't work. Don't want to do a post-mortem a lot. But yes, we want to trust our plan, our process, our method. The New Zealand batters showed that. We used to do that. So, yeah it happens," Rohit added.
