Veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has picked India’s inability to break New Zealand players Rachin Ravindra and Tim Southee’s partnership earlier as one of the reasons for their defeat in the first Test against New Zealand in Bengaluru. He also questioned captain Rohit
Sharma for holding back his pacers during that partnership as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “In bowling, I felt when you had reduced them to 233/7, there was a window of opportunity, that you just barge in. Yes, they had taken a lead but it wasn’t huge. There Rachin Ravindra and Tim Southee were batting and you kept continuing with spin. You didn’t introduce fast bowling at all. You were waiting for the second new ball to get the fast bowlers. I thought It was too late. That was a time when you had to seize the opportunity. You could have looked towards spin as well because of the quality of spinners we have. You expect that they would somehow dismiss Tim Southee at least, if not Rachin Ravindra, but that didn’t happen.”

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In the same video, Aakash Chopra also stated that India’s two batting collapses in the same game were a major reason for their defeat.

“A huge thing that happened was two collapses in one match. That is not allowed. You can survive one collapse but you cannot allow a second collapse, especially when one collapse is 46 all out. In the second innings, when the second new ball came, you were 408/3 at one stage and then got all out for 462. It was impossible to come out unscathed from there. The second innings collapse will pinch more because in the first innings, it was like a storm and everything got drowned. However, in the second innings, you were in control and you knew only the second new ball’s threat could trouble India,” Aakash Chopra concluded.