Harsha Bhogle Tweeted The Exact Reason Why India Lost The Test Series Against New Zealand: The Indian team suffered its first whitewash defeat in the ICC World Test Championship as New Zealand blanked them 2-0 and gained 120 points in the standings. The Kiwis outplayed India in all the departments with the second Test match ending inside three days. None of the Indian batsmen could dominate the home team’s bowlers as they only managed to cross the 200 runs landmark once.
India received a major blow in the first phase of this tour as the limited overs vice-captain, Rohit Sharma picked up an injury and hence, could not take part in the ODI and Test series. Surprisingly, India lost all the remaining five games of the tour. This shows the importance of Sharma in the team. Not only is Rohit a valuable opener but, he can also make a difference with his insights in the leadership group.
Virat Kohli looked absolutely blank in the ODI and Test series as he found himself struggling with his own form as well as the team’s poor performances. He ended this tour without a single century. This statistic is enough to prove that Kohli would soon like to forget the tour of New Zealand. After a historic Test series win in Australia last year, the fans had high hopes from Virat’s men.
However, Harsha Bhogle has now disclosed the real reason behind India’s defeat. As per the cricket expert, India did not lose because of their injury issues or Kohli’s captaincy. The Indian cricket analyst pointed out that it was the poor performance of the Indian openers that allowed New Zealand to win the match. The new duo of Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal could provide team India with a solid start in any of the four innings. On the other side, Tom Latham and Tom Blundell frustrated the Indian bowlers with their magnificent performances.
Here’s what Harsha had to say:
New Zealand outbowled India in spite of Bumrah’s fire in the 2nd test and Ishant in the 1st. But the decisive factor was the absence of opening partnerships that sets the scene for everyone else.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) March 2, 2020
