IND vs NZ: "We failed to respond," Rohit Sharma after losing Pune test by 113 runs

Rohit Sharma lost his first test series at home as Indian test captain.

After suffering a 113-run defeat at the hands of New Zealand in Pune, India captain Rohit Sharma credited New Zealand for playing better cricket in the match.

The Black Caps created history in Pune as they broke India’s 12-year-long test series winning streak at home. New Zealand outplayed the Asian Giants in all three departments in the Pune test, resulting in India losing their first test series at home since 2012.

Before this, the Asian Giants had won 18 consecutive test series at their den — the most by any test-playing nation till now. With this victory, the Tom Latham-led new Zealand took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the ongoing three-match test series against India. The final test will be played in Wankhede from November 1.

New Zealand played better than us: Rohit Sharma

After a shambolic defeat in Pune, Indian captain Rohit Sharma accepted that New Zealand outplayed the hosts and capitalized crucial moments in the match. The Indian captain further said that batters didn’t put enough runs on the board in the first innings.

“Disappointing. It’s not what we expected. Got to give credit to NZ – they played better than us. We failed to capitalise on certain moments. We failed to respond to those challenges. And we sit here today. Didn’t think we batted well enough to get runs on the board. You’ve got to pick 20 wickets to win, yes, but batters have to put runs on the board. Was a great fightback to restrict them to 250-odd but we knew it was going to be challenging,” Rohit Sharma said during the post-match presentation in Pune.

Rohit Sharma credited his bowlers for pulling things back in the second innings of New Zealand. The Indian skipper said that they will come out with better intent and better plans in the third test at Wankhede.

“When they started off, they were 200/3 and for us to come back and get them bowled out for 259 was a great effort. Wasn’t a pitch where a lot was happening. We just didn’t bat well enough. Things would’ve been slightly different had we got a bit closer in the first innings. We want to show up well at Wankhede and try and win that Test. It’s a collective failure. I’m not somebody who would blame just the batters or the bowlers. We will come out with better intent, better ideas and better methods at Wankhede,” Rohit Sharma added.

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