"It was my misjudgement of the pitch," a hurting India skipper Rohit Sharma said on Thursday, taking full responsibility for the team's lowest ever innings total of 46 in a home Test that he is still hoping to save despite New Zealand's current domination.
New Zealand pacers Mark Henry and William O'Rourke shared nine wickets among them to skittle India for 46 on the second day of the first Test at the Chinnaswamy Stadium after Rohit opted to bat first under overcast skies.
"I am hurting a little bit because I made that call. We found ourselves in a situation where we got bowled out for 46 runs. As a captain, it definitely hurts to see that number," said Rohit during the post-day press meet after New Zealand were comfortably placed at 180/3.
"So, clearly a misjudgement of the pitch. I did not read the pitch well enough and we sit in this situation. Though in 365 days, you will make two or three bad calls. That is absolutely fine, I guess," he rued.
Rohit was equally candid to admit that his side did not respond to the challenge offered by the Kiwis pacers.
"The challenge that was thrown at us, we didn't respond well. Sometimes you make the right call, sometimes you don't. I was on the other side of it this time around," he said.
"Today was a bad day for us. But we have played many such matches before. But we should challenge ourselves as much as we can," he asserted.
So, what prompted him to take the decision of taking the first strike even after seeing a canopy of grey clouds hanging over the venue ahead of the toss? "We felt there was no grass on the pitch. We thought it will do whatever it has to do in the first couple of sessions and then it is going to take turn," he explained.
"Whenever we play in India, the first session is always critical and then the wicket tends to settle down and then the spinners come into play," he said.
Rohit also detailed the rationale behind replacing pacer Akash Deep with left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav despite the overcast conditions.
"As I said, there was not much grass (on pitch). So, the reason to add Kuldeep was because he is bold on flat pitches and he has taken wickets. So, we expected the pitch to be a little flatter than what it turned out to be," he said.
Kohli put his hand up for going in at No.3
Since India's usual number three Shubman Gill had to sit out of this match with a stiff neck, Virat Kohli walked out in that position after eight years. Rohit said it was Kohli's decision to bat in that position.
"The experienced players are the ones who have to take that extra responsibility. It is a good sign. This time, it was Virat. He was the one who was ready to do that. We asked him whether he can bat at number three," Rohit revealed.
"We wanted to give Sarfraz the position that he usually bats four, five, six maybe. But we didn't want to change Rishabh and KL (Rahul). Hence, Sarfraz went at four and Virat batted at three," he said. Rohit praised Henry and O'Rourke for troubling the Indian batters throughout the first innings.
"They play in these types of conditions back home. They know exactly what to do when the conditions are like that. Their bowlers actually challenged our batters a lot.
They made us play every second or third ball. That is what you want to do as a bowling unit. We didn't respond to that challenge." Asked what would be the way back for India, having already conceded a lead of 134 runs, Rohit said, "I think for us to stay in the game, we have got to not let them get away with way too many runs. They are at 180, that is about 140 runs (lead).
"The wicket seems to be settling down a little bit and we expect the pitch to play like that. We have got a bat really big in the second inning and try and see if we can make a game out of that," he signed off.
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