India suffered an embarrassing defeat to New Zealand in the first test and lost by 10 wickets. Their performance was so bad with both the bat and ball that they should have actually lost by an innings. Virat Kohli and his team will be very disappointed with the way they played but will have once last chance in the second test to redeem themselves and draw the series.
We take a look at the playing XI and rank each player from a scale of 0 to 10.
TEAM INDIA BATSMEN:
TOP ORDER
Prithvi Shaw (2/10): went into the match with questionable form and failed in both innings. India will have to take a call for the second test whether they give him another go or if they decide to give Shubman Gill an opportunity.
Mayank Agarwal: (6/10): looked the best of all the Indian players as he made 34 and top scored in the second innings with 58. What he needs to do is turn these starts into big scores as that will help the team to set up bigger totals.
Cheteshwar Pujara (2/10): has a crucial role to play at 3 but even more so in this test series because India are without the experienced Rohit Sharma at the top of the order. Pujara is best known for occupying the crease for long periods of time but he failed scoring 11 in both innings.
MIDDLE ORDER
Virat Kohli (1/10): no one will be more disappointed than Virat Kohli. The India captain loves to set an example and in this test match he failed. We have given Kohli a 1 rating because he not only failed with the bat scoring 2 and 19 but also missed a trick or two with his captaincy. India’s tactics to the Kiwi tail in the first innings did not work and they were able to score some vital runs in the end that swung the match completely in their favour.
Ajinkya Rahane (4/10): the Indian vice-captain top scored in the first innings with 46 but failed in the second innings. Rahane is arguably the second best batsmen in the side and needs to deliver more consistently. If he has another average game, there may be pressure on him to keep his place.
Hanuma Vihari (2/10): played this first test as an all-rounder and a lot was expected of him after his century in the tour game against a NZ XI side. However, Vihari did not deliver and got out for 7 and 15.
Rishabh Pant (2/10): got the nod ahead of Wriddhiman Saha; but once again, did not play to his potential scoring 19 and 25. When the top batsmen fail, it is hard to fault a wicket-keeper batsman. But if Pant is going to be preferred, he needs to score runs as Saha is a better keeper.
TEAM INDIA BOWLERS
R Ashwin (3/10): got the nod ahead of Ravindra Jadeja and picked up 3 wickets in his 29 overs. However, he did not score any runs. India have recently preferred to play Jadeja as the number one spinner since he can make a bigger contribution.
Mohammed Shami (2/10): was a major let down for team India; picked up just 1 wicket and was also very expensive.
Ishant Sharma (8/10): returned from injury and was the best of all the fast bowlers; picked up a 5 wicket haul.
Jasprit Bumrah (2/10): also let down India in the first test; was unable to pick up wickets and finished with just 1.
