‘Wasn’t At My Best’: Rohit Sharma Acknowledges Captaincy Failure After India’s 3-0 Loss To New Zealand In Home Test Series

Team India captain Rohit Sharma admitted to the failure in his captaincy as India suffered a historic 3-0 clean-sweep in a home Test series to New Zealand.

India lost to New Zealand by 25 runs in the IND vs NZ 3rd Test in Mumbai and faced a 3-0 clean-sweep at home for the first time in the history of Test cricket. India captain Rohit Sharma minced no words as he accepted his failure as captain after the Mumbai loss. Rohit could only score 92 runs across all three Tests and also made some captaincy errors, contributing to India’s first Test series loss at home in over 12 years.

In the IND vs NZ 3rd Test, Indian batters failed to chase 147 runs and got bundled out for 121 runs with Rishabh Pant being the only half-centurion for India.

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In the post-match presentations after the loss, Rohit acknowledged the team’s collective failure while also noting Tom Latham-led New Zealand’s excellent performance. He said India didn’t play their best cricket, made mistakes and failed to capitalise on opportunities, especially after gaining a lead in Mumbai, which ultimately led to their defeat.

“Yeah, absolutely, you know, losing a series, losing a Test is never easy, it's something that's not easily digestible. Again, we didn't play our best cricket, we know and we have to accept. They (New Zealand) did so much better than us throughout the series. We made a lot of mistakes and we'll have to accept it. We didn't put enough runs on the board in the 1st innings (in Bengaluru and Pune) and we were very much behind in the game, here, we got a 30-run lead, we thought we were ahead, the target was achievable as well, all we had to do was to show a bit of application which we failed to do,” the Indian captain said in the post-match presentation. 

'I Wasn't At My Best' Says Rohit Sharma After India's Loss To New Zealand

Rohit Sharma acknowledged his shortcomings as both a batsman and captain during the series, expressing that his performance weighed heavily on him and contributed to the team's collective failures, which led to their losses.

“From a personal point of view, I wasn't at my best with both bat and as a captain, that's something that'll rankle me. But, we didn't perform well collectively and that's the reason for these losses.”

Rohit Sharma reiterated his captaincy failure in the post-match press conference as well saying he did not lead the team well.

"As a captain as well, I was not at my best at leading the team as well. And not with the bat as well. That is something from the personal point of view. But there are plenty of positives, as we saw in our innings. The bowlers bowled well, kept us in the game, but we collectively failed to perform," he said.