New Zealand Bowls Out India on Paltry 46 In First Innings of Ongoing Bengaluru Test

Bengaluru: A week after their heroic win in Kanpur, India suffered a nightmarish outing against New Zealand, getting bowled out for xx on Day 2 of the first Test of a three-match series. India’s innings lasted only 31.2 overs on an overcast morning in Bengaluru as the Asian giants registered an unwanted record, slipping to their third-lowest total in Test cricket history. It was also India’s lowest Test total at home.

New Zealand pacers William O’Rourke and Matt Henry breathed fire after veteran Tim Southee started the collapse, getting the big wicket of India captain Rohit Sharma as early as the opening hour of the day’s play. India paid the price for opting to bat under grey skies and on a pitch that remained under the covers for the good part of the last three days due to rain in the city.

There were as many as five ducks in the Indian innings. Virat Kohli, who was surprisingly asked to bat at No. 3, Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul and R Ashwin were the batters who did not trouble the scorers at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday.

India, who were looking set to bulldoze New Zealand after their confidence-boosting 2-0 whitewash of Bangladesh earlier this month, were jolted and given a reality check by the New Zealand pacers, who made the best use of the conditions that resembled the green pitches at home.

None of the Indian batters, barring Rishabh Pant and Yashavi Jaiswal, showed the application to stay in the middle when the going was tough.

“It’s a bit worrying,” Anil Kumble told the broadcasters, saying he was surprised by the lack of application from the Indian batters.

“It’s important that you need to adapt. There’s talk about getting wins. Yes, the bowling attack is fantastic. But the batters, you need to think about how to manage in these conditions for India to get to a better situation.

“Today was really disappointing from the Indian batting line-up,” he added.