Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar feels captain Rohit Sharma wasn’t at his best tactical in their first Test loss to New Zealand at Bengaluru. After receiving criticism for his captaincy when New Zealand added 137 crucial runs for the eighth wicket in the first innings, Rohit was in the firing line again on the final day as New Zealand won the match comfortably.

Following the match, Manjrekar spoke on ESPN Cricinfo, “The thing with pacers, you might get wickets, but there are always runs coming through edges. I was a bit surprised, I think tactically for Rohit Sharma, this Test match wasn’t his greatest. I can understand Siraj getting one or two overs and Bumrah getting a long spell. But Siraj getting 6 overs in that forespell, I think that is far too many and already a lot of runs on the board, and you had that little margin to chase.”

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“And another part is Aswhin. When there is no lavish turn on the pitch, the captain tends to use him with a new ball. He would have been tough for the Kiwi batters had he started off with Bumrah, and even if he had come in in the fourth over of the inning,” Manjrekar again added.

However, Rohit Sharma remained upbeat despite India’s defeat to New Zealand and lauded the team’s fightback with the bat in the second innings as well.

At the post-match presentation, Rohit Sharma said: “It was a good effort with the bat in the second innings. We didn’t bat well in the first innings. So knew what was ahead and couple of guys stood out. When you are 350 behind you can’t think too much about it. just got to see the ball and bat. Couple of partnerships were really exciting to watch and got us back in the game. We could have easily been bowled out cheaply but proud of the effort.”