According to India captain Rohit Sharma, the team is focused on completing the series with a victory in Mumbai and is not currently think the World Test Championship final. New Zealand won a historic series on Indian soil, defeating India by 113 runs in the Pune Test. The defeat has hurt India's chances of making it to the WTC final for the third consecutive time and has ended their 11-year home series dominance.
Rohit on WTC Final
"It's too early to think about WTC. I am hurting because we lost the game. I don't want to think too much about too far. It's a collective failure. If you lose a Test match, it's about the entire unit that has to take the blame," said Rohit Sharma in the post-match press conference.
"If you bat for three days, you'll win a Test match. The idea was to try to get to the score. When the pitch is doing what it is doing, then you'll have to look for runs, put bowlers under pressure. It didn't work for us but it worked for NZ. I thought there was a good chance of us winning this Test. By no means, I'll go into the mindset to draw a Test first rather than winning it," he added.
This was India's first home defeat in a Test series against New Zealand. This ended India's dominance at home. The longest run of victories in Test cricket history which was achieved by India by winning 18 straight Test series at home came to an end in Pune. New Zealand's outstanding performance with both bat and the ball stole the show.
In the World Test Championship standings, India has placed itself in a challenging position despite being on top. The other teams are quickly catching up to them, and they currently lead Australia by a slim margin. In the event that India loses the third Test match in Mumbai as well, South Africa and Sri Lanka can prove to be a formidable opponent.
