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New Zealand on Sunday, November 3 scripted history in Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium, becoming the first-ever team to whitewash India 3-0 in the Test series on Indian soil. The home team needed 147 runs for a consolation win, but the batting order collapsed with seniors finding it difficult to stick to the ground against the class spinners, including Ajaz Patel and Glenn Phillips. Out of all the senior players, Team India skipper Rohit Sharma had the worst innings in this Test series as he got dismissed scoring only 11 runs.
This Test series against New Zealand also displayed Indian batters' failure to play spin, along with other issues. Indian captain, Rohit Sharma expressed his disappointment calling this series whitewash a "very low point" in his career. "I wasn't at my best with both bat and as a captain, that's something that'll rankle me. But we didn't perform well collectively and that's the reason for these losses,” Sharma said in his post-match press conference.
Rohit's failure to score runs in the recently-concluded Test series have led to speculations on his retirement, with several claiming that it was his last Test series at home. If this proves to be correct, here in this article we have listed three reasons why the India versus New Zealand Test series was Rohit Sharma’s last on the Indian soil.
Three reasons why Rohit Sharma played his last home Test series vs NZ
Lack of big scores
The 37-year-old India batter in his 35 innings in home Tests, has scored 1210 runs with an average of 37.81. However, his last 10 innings were quite a disappointment. There were innings against New Zealand where he scored less than 10 runs and two less than 20 runs. This year, Rohit Sharma scored 588 runs in 11 Tests with an average of 29.40. Moreover, his inability to play against spinners against New Zealand was quite an issue.
This is the lowest average he has recorded since he began playing the longest format in 2019. Surprisingly, he had the finest T20 cricket season during this time, recording the highest strike rate (154.66) and average (36.13) in a calendar year.
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Vulnerable to early swing and seam
Rohit got clean bowled against veteran New Zealand bowler Tim Southee, and this dismissal in Pune was the 14th instance of Southee dismissing the captain across all formats. These are the signs of worry and proves that he is quite vulnerable to the early swing and seam bowling movement.
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Pressure to perform as Team India's captain
The Test series against New Zealand highlighted the pressure Rohit Sharma has been facing, playing dual roles as captain and senior batsman. As a leader who needs to set an example for his team, it seems he is finding it quite challenging to play his natural style, especially in the longest format.
These three reasons could push the Indian batter to hang his gloves from the longest format sooner than expected. Moreover, there are reports that the BCCI will decide the future of senior players including Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in Test cricket, especially with the World Test Championship (WTC) Final position at stake and the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy ahead.
