I was not at my best as captain, and with the bat – Rohit Sharma after series loss against New Zealand

Indian captain Rohit Sharma admitted he wasn’t at his best either as a captain or as a batter after their ignominious 3-0 loss against New Zealand. This is the first time when India has suffered a whitewash of 3-0 while playing at home. 

India suffered a 25-run loss in the third Test match at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Sunday when they failed to chase down 147 runs. The home team was bundled out for 121 runs as their poor showing with the bat continued. 

The home team found themselves in a pickle as they were reduced to 29-5 and had their backs against the wall. Rishabh Pant scored a fine knock of 64 runs before his controversial dismissal but none of the other batters could even breach the 15-run mark.

“Definitely, you know, something like this will be a very low point in my career, you know, having lost three games at home,” Rohit said at the post-match press conference. “And, yes, we, I fully take the responsibility for that as a captain and as a leader as well. I have not been at the best of my abilities right from the start of the series. And yeah, with the bat as well, I’ve not been good enough.”

Rohit admitted that his tactical moves didn’t come off and highlighted that his decision to bat first on a seam-friendly Bengaluru pitch cost them big.

“Right from the start, I said it. You know, I made a decision about batting first on that Bangalore pitch, which was not right,” he said. “And certain tactical errors also, which didn’t go my way. You obviously take chances with those decisions. Sometimes it comes off. Sometimes it doesn’t. And this time around, it didn’t come off, the certain decisions that I took. So, yeah, I was not at my best of my leadership. And probably cost us the series as well.”

Rohit acknowledged that New Zealand played better than them and they were not at their best with the bat throughout the series, which led to their downfall.

“New Zealand played better than us throughout the series,” he said at the presentation. “There were lots of mistakes that we made throughout the series, and we have to accept it.

“The first and the second Test, we didn’t put enough runs on the board in the first innings. And we were very much behind the game. This game, we got that 30 [28]-runs lead and we felt that we were a little bit ahead of the game. That target was chaseable. All we had to do was a little bit of application, which we failed to do as a unit.”

India will now need to win 4-0 against Australia to qualify for the WTC final.