India head coach Gautam Gambhir on Thursday pointed out reasons for recent trend of teams losing at home in Tests and said that it is because of the pressure of the World Test Championship (WTC) points. India will be looking to saving their pride as they take on Kiwis in the third Test at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. With the hosts being 0-2 down in the three-match series and having endured their first series loss in Tests at home in 12 years, they will be aiming to play out of their skins in order to avoid an embarassing whitewash.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Gambhir said that every match is important for him. He added that teams are losing at home Tests because of the pressure of T20 cricket.
“For me, WTC points are very important. Every Test match is important. There are no dead rubbers anymore. It has lot to do with T20 cricket. Gone are the days of draws because the quality of batters and hitting has went up. Matches will be more result-oriented now. It is the combination of being pressure due to WTC points and T20I cricket,” Gambhir said.
In the second Test, NZ opted to bat first and half-centuries from Devon Conway (76) and Rachin Ravindra (65) helped the Kiwis reach 259 after Washington Sundar (7/59) delivered an incredible comeback spell to destroy the Kiwi middle order. In their first innings, India posted just 156 runs, with spinner Mitchell Santner taking 7/53 and Ravindra Jadeja top-scoring with 38 runs. In their second innings, with the help of skipper Tom Latham’s 86, NZ posted 255/10, with Washington picking four wickets and Ravindra Jadeja getting three. In the run chase of 359 runs, India was skittled out for 245, despite a fight put on by Yashasvi Jaiswal (77). India lost by 114 runs and NZ won the series 2-0.
NZ had won the first Test by eight wickets.
India Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Dhruv Jurel, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, KL Rahul.
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