‘We felt it was the right thing to do’ - Rohit explains why India opted for rank turners

At the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Indian batters’ frailties against spin were exposed once again as they failed to chase 147 batting fourth, thereby ensuring that the team registered an unwanted record by getting clean-swept in a three-Test series at home for the first time ever.

READ: Every unwanted record India set in 0-3 whitewash against New Zealand

The dissection of the series defeat is still ongoing but what’s been unanimously agreed upon is that India are shooting themselves in the foot by preparing rank turners that make the toss crucial and turn batting into a lottery. 

India have suffered five home defeats since the start of 2023 and three of them have come on extreme turners: Indore (2023), Pune (2024) and Mumbai (2024). And in each of these games, the home side have been humiliated by a left-arm spinner who has ended up leading the opposition to victory. In Indore against Australia, it was Matthew Kuhnemann. It was Mitch Santner in Pune last week and here in Mumbai, it’s Ajaz Patel.

The side opted to prepare much more ‘sporting’ wickets against England earlier this year, a series which they ended up winning 4-1. So why was the same not done against the Kiwis?

“It’s based on series to series, what we want,” Rohit Sharma explained after the Mumbai defeat, speaking about India’s pitch preferences.

“We played on some really good pitches against England. This time around [against New Zealand], we felt this [preparing rank-tuners] was the right thing to do as a team. 

“More often than not we’ve come on the right side of it [on turning tracks]. This is the only time where we’ve fallen short in terms of what we wanted to achieve from the series.”

Speaking of the Wankhede defeat, where India got rolled over for 121, chasing 147, Rohit said that it was poor shot selection more than anything that led to the team’s downfall. At the same time, however, he defended the intent shown by all the batters, including himself.

“Shot selection was definitely not up to the mark, including me. But the only thing I would say is that when you’re chasing a target like that, you want to try and put the pressure on the bowlers. You can’t allow the bowlers to bowl on one particular slot.

“I played a bad shot, yes, but I don’t regret it honestly. Because that’s given me a lot of success in the past. So I’ll continue to do that. Every now and then, I’ll try to reflect about what I do as a batter but I know how things work here - if things go well, no questions are asked. If things don’t go well, questions are asked. But I accept that we were not good enough with the bat in the entire series.”

Overall, the three-match series has turned out to be one to forget for both India and Rohit. For India, it’s the team’s first 3-0 whitewash in a three-match bilateral series at home in history. It’s their first series loss at home in 12 years and just the second ever whitewash at home in history. As far as Rohit is concerned, he is now only the second Indian captain, after Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, to have lost five or more home Tests. He has lost five Tests at home since the start of 2023; Najmul Hossain Shanto is the only other captain to lose as many home Tests during this period.

The India skipper described the series as a ‘low point’ in his career.

"Something like this will be a very low point of my career and I take full responsibility for it," Rohit said.

“As a captain and as a leader I have not been at the best of my abilities right from the start of this series. And I’ve not been good enough with the bat as well,” he added.

This Indian side is a team in the middle of a mini-transition, yet the seniors let the team down in the series. While Rohit averaged 15.16, crossing the 20-run mark just once in six attempts, Kohli averaged 15.50. The latter, in fact, managed just 23 runs in four innings across the last two Tests of the series.

The team India skipper admitted that seniors not contributing is a ‘concern’, but insisted that there’s no need to hit the panic button ahead of the Australia series. He asserted that the side will have to put it behind and refocus again in Australia, where they have the chance to do ‘something special’.

"It is a concern when seniors aren't scoring runs. But what's done is done. As a player, as a captain, as the team, we all have to look forward and see how we can correct what we didn't manage to achieve here. We have an opportunity to do something special in Australia. We'll focus on that now," Rohit said.

"We made a lot of mistakes, so I think those mistakes needs to be addressed. I think it's important to just focus on that particular series.”

At the press conference, the 37-year-old also confirmed that he is a doubtful starter for the first BGT Test in Perth. Rohit is expected to be in India in November on paternity leave.

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