India captain Rohit Sharma was at the receiving end of the stick for his questionable tactics while New Zealand batted first on Day 1 of the second Test in Pune on Thursday. Rohit’s captaincy was slammed by several renowned cricket experts as his field placements left a lot to be desired. New Zealand were bowled out for 259, thanks to Washington Sundar’s career-best figures of 7/59 and Ravichandran Ashwin roaring back to form with three wickets of his own. It was, in fact, one of the rare incidents when all 10 opposition wickets belonged to one or more off-spinners. However, during a prolonged period in the match, New Zealand seemed to be on course to put up a big total and applying immense pressure on India.
Half-centuries from Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra had the home team struggling to pick wickets and break partnerships as the two batters milked singles at ease. The lack of close-in fielders and Rohit’s reluctance to give Jasprit Bumrah more overs left the experts scratching their heads. More alarmingly, the shoulders of the Indian players dropped as Ravindra and Conway went about their business, a sight hardly witnessed when Virat Kohli was captain. Rohit’s lacklustre captaincy finally caught the attention of the pundits, as they, one by one, started taking witty and indirect jibes at the Indian skipper.
“If he’d had fielders like that at long off and long on against spinners before a lofted shot had been played, the captain would have been called a defensive captain. ‘He’s a defensive captain; he’s a negative captain’. Even now, this is good field in the sense that there is one at long-on, for playing with the turn, which is how it should be,” said Sunil Gavaskar, the first one to remark on live TV while doing commentary.
More criticism
Former New Zealand pacer Simon Doull then pointed out a half-hearted effort by Kohli on the field, and how India’s body language had fallen flat just as Conway and Ravindra’s partnership was beginning to flourish. “The previous ball, just an example of the body language, the heads. You don’t see that from Virat Kohli that often. Just a lazy miss; that does not happen. He sets such high standards,” said Doull.
“Another single, in fact they will get another run here. “India have been too defensive from the get go. Too defensive in that first session of play when that ball was gripping. To have long on and long off back, I mean it’s like playing into the hands of the New Zealand batters,” mentioned former India coach and all-rounder Ravi Shastri, as Akash Deep put in a dive to successfully stop a boundary.
However, keeping all the criticism aside, Rohit and his bowlers did well to dismiss New Zealand inside the first day, but the skipper would have been even happier had he been able to add some runs to go with it. Rohit, who looked like a million bucks during his half-century in the previous game, was out for a duck, castled and squared up by Tim Southee.
