“Wasn’t the best way to defend that ball” – Dinesh Karthik reflects on Rohit Sharma’s dismissal on Day 1 of IND vs NZ 2024 2nd Test

Former Indian wicket-keeper bat Dinesh Karthik feels there were technical glitches in Rohit Sharma’s defence after the Indian skipper was dismissed for a nine-ball duck on the opening day of the second Test match against New Zealand at Pune on Thursday. 

Rohit was squared up by veteran New Zealand pacer Tim Southee without opening his account. Barring the score of 52, which he scored in the second innings at Bengaluru, Rohit hasn’t been at his best in the recent past in the red-ball format.

This was the 14th time when Southee got the better of Rohit in international cricket. 

Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz, “The ball was swinging a bit and Southee has had his number quite a few times. If you want me to get into stats, 14 times he has dismissed him in international cricket. He probably has an edge over Rohit a little bit. Hence, he is aware that he is the bowler that Rohit doesn’t fancy as much, so the batter was just taking his time. He came out defensive.

“That was a stock, standard ball for Southee. There was nothing great about it. Yes, it swung a little bit from the stumps, but that’s what good international bowlers do. Rohit got out to a ball which he shouldn’t have. It might look good on screen. He played the ball rather badly. The way he defended wasn’t the best way to defend that ball,” Karthik concluded.

Meanwhile, Rohit has returned with scores of 6, 5, 23, 8, 2, 52, 0 in the last seven Test innings and thus has failed to lead from the front.

After dismissing New Zealand for 259, India ended the opening day’s play at 16-1, trailing by 243 runs.