- By Namrata Vijay
- Thu, 17 Oct 2024 02:11 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
India National Cricket Team vs New Zealand Cricket Team, 1st Test: After scripting a historic victory in Kanpur earlier this month, the Men in Blue had a disastrous start against New Zealand as they were skittled out for 46 runs on the second day of the series opener. The whole innings got over in 31.2 overs under overcast conditions in M Chinnaswamy stadium and thus created an unwanted record by recording their third-lowest total in the history of this format. This was also their lowest Test total at home.
New Zealand fast bowlers William O'Rourke and Matt Henry wreaked havoc after Tim Southee gave the team the much-needed breakthrough by dismissing Indian skipper Rohit Sharma in the first over. Rohit's decision of batting first in overcast conditions backfired as the surface was under covers since the last three days due to persistent rain.
About five batters were dismissed for a duck during the first innings. Virat Kohli, who came into bat at No.3 position, Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul, and R Ashwin all got out on a duck in Bengaluru on Thursday.
Also Read: India's lowest score in Test matches: list of innings total at home
The Rohit Sharma-led side who were aiming to repeat their heroics from the Bangladesh series against New Zealand received huge blows by the Kiwis, who took advantage of these conditions as they are quite similar to those conditions back home.
Except for Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal, no other batter could stay at the crease for long, especially when it was needed the most.
"It's a bit worrying," Anil Kumble told broadcasters.
"It's important that you need to adapt. There's talk about getting wins. Yes, the bowling attack is fantastic. But the batters, you need to think about how to manage in these conditions for India to get to a better situation. Today was disappointing from the Indian batting line-up," he revealed.
Tactical blunders galore
The Indian team management made lots of blunders. After winning the toss, Rohit didn't let his pacers take advantage of the situation and rattle New Zealand's batting lineup, who recently suffered a humiliating 2-0 loss to Sri Lanka. And then they sent Virat Kohli to bat at No.3 position on unknown conditions for a batter of his stature.
The team management should have sent KL Rahul to bat at the No.3 position instead as he was quite aware of his home ground conditions at the M Chinnaswamy stadium. But the decision to send Kohli to the No.3 position backfired as he got out on a duck.
Sarfaraz Khan, who came into bat at the No.4 position, also got out on a duck, whereas KL Rahul also followed his fellow teammate on the next ball.
R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja couldn't help the team bounce back as Henry and O'Rourke rattled the middle-order after the lunch break. After their dismissals, the team was tottering at 34/7.
Pant scored just 20 runs and wasn't able to score aggressively as he kept losing partners from the other end. Henry took his wicket post-lunch.
Jasprit Bumrah got out after scoring one run whereas Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammed Siraj took the charge for a while. Kuldeep Yadav was Henry's fifth wicket as the hosts were skittled out for 46 runs in 31.2 overs.