Rohit Sharma press conference: Captain's bold remark on WTC, series defeat

Skipper Rohit Sharma in the conference said that the team is not thinking about the WTC at the moment

New Zealand created history on Saturday when they secured their first Test series win in India after 69 years, breaking India’s 18-Test series winning streak in the process. The Kiwis won the second Test in Pune by 113 runs to go 2-0 up in the three-match series. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, after the match, gave his take on the loss by saying it was a collective failure of both batters and bowlers. He also said that the team would come out with better intent in the last Test at Wankhede. 

Cannot put blame on a single department 

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma attended the post-match press conference after the second Test at Pune and made some bold remarks on India’s disappointing performance in the series. Rohit, after being asked whether he thought the batters’ failure to put up big totals cost them the game and series, said, “I do not want to postmortem much and will just say it was a collective failure as both departments failed to put pressure on the opposition.” 

Rohit also credited the New Zealand side for putting the Indian team under pressure. He said, “I will give credit to New Zealand for controlling the pace of the game and putting us on the backfoot. We have won 42 matches at home in the last 12 years, which shows we are not a bad side. I accept that we collapsed in the last two games, but I think small failures in 12 years can be allowed.” 

Rohit on India’s home dominance said, “Let’s leave the 12 years; even if we talk about the last 4-5 years, we have performed so well that people think India can do no wrong. But that’s not the case; a visiting team played better cricket and won, that’s it.” 

Not focusing on WTC 

When asked about their approach for WTC 2023-25 final qualification, Rohit said, “I am hurting because we lost the game. It was not a pitch to score 250, and we just want to come out with better intent and mindset in the last Test. As for the WTC final chances, we are not thinking about that at the moment.” 

Notably, India, despite being at the top of the WTC points table with 62.82 percentage points, has only a 0.32-point lead over second-placed Australia, who has 62.5 percentage points. India has six more games left to play in the ongoing cycle, and if they want to reach their third consecutive WTC final in 2025, they must win five of those Tests. However, their biggest challenge is that five of these six Tests will be played in Australia. Despite winning the last two series down under, India does not have a dominant record on the pace-friendly pitches of Australia.