Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, though, played down all concerns about the WTC final after India suffered an innings and 118-run defeat against New Zealand in the final Pune Test. The loss ended India’s 11-year unbeaten home series run while New Zealand won their first ever series on Indian soil.

Though the loss may cost India a shot at the WTC final, the Indian skipper said now all his team’s eyes are concentrated towards doing well in the final Test at Mumbai. Rohit said that the defeat was a collective failure of his side and admitted that his side failed to challenge New Zealand.

“We are going to come back here at Wankhede and win that Test,” Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation. “As a team, we did not rise to the challenge they presented, and that led to this result.”

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Rohit Sharma feels that the visitors outplayed India mainly with the bat in the New Zealand play. That underwhelming batting in the Tests at Bengaluru and Pune ultimately spelt losses for India.

“This isn’t the result we could have expected. New Zealand played better cricket. We haven’t responded to their challenge quite well, and that comes out in the result. Batsmen did not give enough runs on the board”. Our bowlers did well but gave them a 100-run lead, which proved to be costly for us.

At one point of time during the initial stages, Rohit was positive that India can chase down the target, but later admitted they were not ready to face New Zealand’s pressure.”

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We thought we could chase it, but we couldn’t resist the tests. They were at 200 for 3, and pulling them back to 259 was an effort. But we didn’t bat well enough on a pitch that didn’t offer much to bowlers. Credit to New Zealand for playing better cricket,” said Rohit Sharma.

India’s lead in WTC standings now narrows as six Tests are remaining in their campaign.