Rohit Sharma hasn’t had the best of times for India in Test cricket, especially in the second half of 2024. Earlier this year, India came from 1-0 down to win the series against England 4-1. They were one of the favourites to qualify for the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25. India strongly had the odds in their favour against New Zealand in the three-match Test series.
But the series turned out to be equivalent to a nightmare for Rohit and his men. Not many would have given the Black Caps a fair chance to win even a single Test in India, since they had only two Test wins to show for their efforts on Indian soil. But Tom Latham’s men came out firing on all cylinders and won the Test series 0-3.
Rohit Sharma, thereby, became the first Indian captain to lose a Test series 3-0 at home. The Kiwis also became the first team to win a Test series 0-3 in India. Captaining India in 15 Tests at home since he took over from Virat Kohli, Rohit has lost four matches.
Earlier, after losing the Pune Test by 133 runs, India lost a home Test series after 4331 days. The last time India lost a home Test series was back in 2012 when MS Dhoni’s men went down 2-1 to England in the four-match affair.
After getting bowled out for 46 in the first innings of the Bengaluru Test, India could never recover. Chasing 147 to win the Mumbai Test, Rishabh Pant gave them hopes with a sparkling half-century, but he hardly got any support from the other batters.
After Pant got out for 64, none of the batters put up a fight as India were bowled out for 121 in 29.1 overs. Once India were reduced to 29 for five in 7.1 overs, they could never get on top of the New Zealand spin-bowling duo of Ajaz Patel and Glenn Phillips.
India, now, have a stiff take in hand as they need to beat Australia 4-0 to go through to the finals of the WTC without depending on other results. Australia, in the meantime, are on top of the table and are firm favourites to be one of the finalists at Lord’s.
