Rohit Sharma admits to captaincy blunder after India's batting collapse, Says 'I couldn’t read the pitch well'

Bengaluru: India captain Rohit Sharma admitted to a costly misjudgment of the pitch at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium after India suffered a batting collapse.

Speaking after the second day’s play, Rohit reflected on the decision to bat first under overcast conditions, a call that backfired disastrously for the hosts. "We thought it wouldn’t help the seamers much after the first session or so. There wasn’t much grass either. We expected it to be much flatter than it turned out to be. It was a misjudgment on my part, and I couldn’t read the pitch well. I am hurting to see this score of 46 as a captain as it was my call to bat first. But one or two bad calls in a year is quite alright," Rohit admitted.

“On a pitch where there was assistance for the seamers, and now that we were bowled out for 46, you could say the shot selection wasn’t up to the mark. It was a bad day. Sometimes you plan to do something but fail to execute,” the Indian skipper added.

India’s strategy of promoting Kohli to the number three spot also failed. Kohli, who took responsibility for the role after discussions with the team, was dismissed for a duck, and Sarfaraz Khan, batting at number four, followed suit with a cheap dismissal. KL Rahul, batting at number six, also failed to capitalise on his familiarity with the local conditions, being dismissed without scoring.

“We don’t want to touch KL’s batting position much. He has found a place at 6, so let’s give him a rope there. Same with Sarfaraz, we wanted to give him a similar position to where he bats because he is new to international cricket as well. So Virat was the one who wanted to take responsibility. We had a discussion, and he was fine with it. That’s a good sign that players are taking responsibility,” Rohit said. IANS

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