India recently lost the first-ever Test series against New Zealand at home, and captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Gautam Gambhir are under fire. Former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary warned Rohit and Gambhir of severe consequences after the embarrassing loss.
India’s 18-series winning streak has ended, and it has dented their hopes of making it to the World Test Championship final.
Speaking to Cricbuzz, Tiwary said that bad weather in Bengaluru had undone India. He mentioned that Chinnaswamy had rolled out a spinning track, but rain forced the home team to change their playing XI and plans.
“India were impacted by bad weather in Bengaluru, because they prepared a turning pitch. After winning the toss, Rohit decided to bat forst and it is where all the problems started. The team selection was wrong and they replaced three players in the second game,” he said.
He further said that the selection calls in the Pune Test could divide the dressing room. Tiwary explained that while Washington Sundar took 11 wickets, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel have given similar results in the past.
Tiwary reckoned that Rohit Sharma’s onfield mistakes and selection calls allowed New Zealand to take a 2-0 lead.
“Washington Sundar”s selection can’t be questioned but that doesn’t mean Kuldeep Yadav is bad. They thought Sundar can also contribute in the batting order and went ahead with him. This could break the dressing room. There will be cracks in the team. You also have all-rounder Axar patel, who has been magnificent in the batting and bowling departments in Test cricket but he was also not considered. You didn’t play Akash Deep in the first Test but he was in the Playing XI in the second game. He was not given a ball in the second innings. Then you didn’t start ith Jasprit Bumrah in the attack. All these things backfired,” he added.
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