With pride at stake, India will be aiming to win the third and final Test match against New Zealand in Mumbai. Meanwhile, the visitors will aim to complete a cleansweep, having already bagged a series-clinching 2-0 lead. In the first innings, the hosts had to rely on some gritty batting from Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar. Meanwhile, the likes of Virat Kohli (4), Yashasvi Jaiswal (30), Ravindra Jadeja (14), Sarfaaraz Khan (0) failed to have an impact.
In response to New Zealand’s total of 235 runs, India posted 263, finishing with a first innings lead of 28 runs. But Gautam Gambhir will be disappointed with his side’s performance against the visiting spinners in home conditions. Ajaz Patel grabbed a fifer for New Zealand, with Glenn Phillips and Ish Sodhi also taking a wicket each.
Sanjay Manjrekar dissects India’s batting weakness
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, ex-India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar pointed out Rohit Sharma and Co. glaring weakness against spinners to Gambhir. “For starters, the batting coach could slowly introduce the Ind batters to the wonders of back foot play v spinners. Will make survival easier, so also run scoring. Barring Pant, all main batters got out to spin while on front foot,” he wrote.
Ajaz removed Jaiswal, Shubman Gill (90), Mohammed Siraj (0), Sarfaraz Khan, R Ashwin (6). Meanwhile, Sodhi removed Pant (60) and Phillips got the wicket of Jadeja.
Gill, in particular, narrowly missed out on a ton and was dismissed while attempting to play Ajaz on the front foot. Gill was drawn on the front foot, but the delivery turned away from the batter, and got an outside edge, which went flat to first slip for a low catch.
Meanwhile, Jadeja and Ashwin also were dismissed while going on the front foot. Jadeja also outside edged his shot to first slip for a low catch. Ashwin also did the same, getting dismissed in similar manner.
