India's captain Rohit Sharma expressed his calm outlook after India’s first home Test series defeat in 12 years, emphasizing that there is no need for panic despite the loss.
New Zealand's dominant 113-run victory in the second Test handed India a 2-0 series loss, a rare occurrence on Indian soil. However, Rohit reassured that his team will regroup and focus on improvements rather than dwelling on the defeat.
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Is India concerned about the WTC final after the series loss at home?
Despite India’s defeat and the impact it had on their World Test Championship (WTC) standings, Rohit maintained that it's too early to focus on the WTC final.
India now narrowly leads Australia with 62.82 percentage points compared to Australia’s 62.50. However, Rohit downplayed any immediate concern about their WTC chances, instead focusing on the need to address the issues that led to their series loss.
He said, "It's too early to think about the World Test Championship final. I'm hurting because of the loss. We are not thinking that ahead. Quite early to think about how much it affects our chances. There are things we need to do as a unit. From the bowlers and the batters. it's a collective failure."
What are India’s key takeaways after NZ series loss?
Reflecting on the series, Rohit pointed out that despite their failure in this particular series, India has had an impressive run of 18 consecutive series wins at home.
He acknowledged that batting was the main issue in the series but reiterated that such setbacks are part of the game.
"We have won 18 series in a row at home. So we have done a good job. In this series, we didn't bat as well as required. These things happen. We have scored on challenging wickets.
"I don't want to dwell on these two poor Tests much. Two or three bad innings happen. What we wanted to do in this series with the bat didn't work," said Rohit.
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Rohit stressed the importance of trusting their process and method, pointing to New Zealand’s batsmen as an example of executing a well-planned approach.
"But yes, we want to trust our plan, our process, our method. The New Zealand batters showed that. We used to do that. So, yeah it happens," he added.
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