Rohit Sharma Admits Misjudgement In The First Test

Rohit Sharma was brave to admit that he read the pitch wrong in the first Test against New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Captains rarely speak with courage and own up a lapse at the toss. Sharma came to the presser after he was bundled out for 46 on the second day of the three-Test series and expressed disappointment. Sharma said he did not see grass on the surface that was under protection from the heavy and continuous rainfall for nearly three days and that the pitch would be flat.  Only recently his teammates and the cricketing world lavished praise on him for going all out in the  batting and bowling departments in order to force a result in the Kanpur Test against Bangladesh. It was his 19th Test as captain (in Bengaluru) with a winning record of fractionally lower than 67%. After two days of action the pendulum appears to have swung in favour of New Zealand which has won only two Tests in India in nearly seven decades. Sharma’s bold call at the toss helped New Zealand’s fast bowlers to run through the home team’s batting line with no fuss. Captains consider the atmosphere, pitch conditions and their team’s strength before writing the playing XI and the decision to be taken at the toss. Once he chose to drop in-form fast bowler Akash Deep and bring in Chinaman practitioner Kuldeep Yadav, Sharma was only going to choose to bat. It was a call that saw India in a sorry plight, shot out for its third lowest score in Test cricket.