Did Rohit Sharma make a mistake by batting first in the first test against New Zealand in Bengaluru?

Did Rohit Sharma make a mistake by batting first in the first test against New Zealand in Bengaluru? The Indian captain boldly decided to bat first despite a bowling-friendly condition in Bengaluru.

Koushik BiswasOctober 17, 2024 at 02:48 PM2 min read
Did Rohit Sharma make a mistake by batting first in the first test against New Zealand in Bengaluru?
Did Rohit Sharma make a mistake by batting first in the first test against New Zealand in Bengaluru? The Indian captain boldly decided to bat first despite a bowling-friendly condition in Bengaluru.

Did Rohit Sharma make a mistake by batting first in the first test against New Zealand in Bengaluru?

Despite the conditions being cloudy and gloomy, which generally assists the pacers, Indian captain Rohit Sharma chose to bat first in the first test against New Zealand at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. 

The Kiwi bowlers rattled India as they registered their lowest-ever total in a home test match with only 46 on the board. So, why did Rohit Sharma make that decision despite knowing the conditions?

The Indian captain wanted to emulate what Sourav Ganguly had done in the 2002 test match vs England at Leeds when he chose to bat first despite the conditions being bowling-friendly. Ganguly knew, that if the batters played out the first day, India could dominate the test match.

India did the same as Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly scored centuries and India won the test match by an innings and 46 runs.

However, this time, Rohit Sharma and company could not put up any resistance against Kiwi bowlers and were all-out for 46, their third-lowest total in test cricket history.

Koushik Biswas

Koushik Biswas is the founder and content head of Sportz Point. He has been a sports lover since his childhood, idolising Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan and Lionel Messi. Koushik played cricket for 7 years and has a passion for every sport. His nack for analysing games and talking about sports has helped him create hundreds of content for Sportz Point.

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