IND vs NZ, 2nd Test Preview: Rohit Sharma’s men hit reset button after embarrassing Bengaluru loss

sanjeev

khelja|24-10-2024

India will be hoping to hit the right balance in their batting line-up to avenge the loss dealt to them by New Zealand last week as the two teams step out for the second Test match of their three-game series at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune.
The Men in Blue were knocked over for an embarrassing 46 in the first innings of the opening fixture against the Kiwis. Their valiant comeback in the following essay of the play could not stop an inevitable loss that saw their points tally in the World Test Championship (WTC) take a massive jolt.  
Winning the next two Tests will be first priority for Rohit Sharma and his men before they hit the Australian shores for a five-Test affair next month. With India in a spot of bother, focus has undeniably been on the nature of the pitch here at the MCA Stadium. It does not have grass cover and is composed of black soil to negate the bounce which New Zealand extracted in Bengaluru. India's free-flowing batters cut a sorry figure when William O'Rourke and the seasoned duo of Matt Henry and Tim Southee served a wake up call which no one saw coming on a pace-friendly track that was admittedly misread by Rohit despite overcast conditions. With head coach Gautam Gambhir backing KL Rahul to hold on to his spot in the middle-order, it remains to be seen if consistency in team selection continues to yield the required results in the coming two five-day games. Full Squads India: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Washington Sundar. New Zealand: Tom Latham (c), Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Mark Chapman, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner, Rachin Ravindra, Tom Blundell (wk), Ajaz Patel, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, William O'Rourke, Jacob Duffy.
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