India captain Rohit Sharma called it a "collective failure" after his side went down against New Zealand in the second Test of the three-match series at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune. As a result of this defeat, India have suffered their first Test series loss at home after a gap of 12 years. The Indian batters, be it Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli, were not able to cope with the spinning track, and it just took three days for the Kiwis to win the second Test by 113 runs.

Mitchell Santner proved to be the wreaker-in-chief as the left-arm spinner took a total of 13 wickets in the Test. Speaking at the post-match presentation, Rohit said that his side was not able to put enough runs on the board in the first innings, and it proved to be a massive turning point.

"Disappointing. It is not what we expected but again, we have to give credit to New Zealand, they played better than us. We failed to capitalise on certain moments in the game which were thrown at us. We failed to respond to those challenges and we sit here with this result today," said Rohit Sharma.

"Yeah, look, I didn't think we batted well enough to get runs on the board. We know, if you want to win, you have to get 20 wickets, yes but batters have to put runs on the board as well. We didn't put enough runs in the first innings and were then 100 runs behind. From there, obviously it was a great fightback from us to restrict them to 250 odd but we knew, it was going to be challenging," he added.

Rohit Sharma, also addressed the post-match press conference, and it was there that he will not start judging his team, based on this performance in Pune.

Speaking to reporters, Rohit said, "I just said it, because of these three sessions, I am not going to react differently. Look at the number of games we have won in India. I was just watching the television, out of the 54 Test matches, we have won 42, that is nearly 80 per cent. There are more good things that have happened than bad things. I don't want to react so much that guys within the team start thinking that something different is happening. I don't want to create that kind of environment where people start doubting themselves."

"For good 12 years, we had that great run, which meant we were doing many good things. Just because we have lost this series, I don't think there is anything that we need to do differently or talk differently but yeah, we need to find ways to come out of those situations where we were put under pressure. I don't need to open a medical kit and start doing different things. It is important to understand that this team has done pretty good things in the past," he added.

Speaking further, he said, "I am not going to overreact. You need to have quite chat about what they need to do. I am going to support the players who are going to play in Australia for the first time. Keep it calm and make them feel they belong here."

"Thought we can chase that target"

India, who did a good job in wrapping up the New Zealand's innings on the third day, were set a target of 359 to level the three-match series. Yashasvi Jaiswal showed intent at the top, as he played a knock of 77 runs, but as soon as he edged a delivery to Daryl Mitchell at slip, India's hopes of chasing the total crashed.

Rohit said that he thought that his side can chase the total, but the constant pressure applied from the New Zealand bowlers proved to be dampener.

"We came out thinking that we can chase that target, but the continuous pressure from both sides, meant that we could not respond to those challenges," said Rohit.

When asked if he thought New Zealand got a bit too many runs in the first innings, Rohit said, "Look, to be honest, when they started off, they were 200 odd for three, and for us to come back and restrict them to 259, was great. I thought it was a pitch where not much was happening, we just did not bat well enough. Had we gotten closer to the first innings, things would have been different but New Zealand played better."

"We want to show up at Wankhede and win that Test. Not thinking too far ahead. It is important that we focus on our next game and what better we can do as a unit, because it is a collective failure. I am not somebody who blames the batters or bowlers, it is just a team that has failed to accept the challenge that was thrown at us. We will come up with better intent, methods and ideas at Wankhede," the Indian captain said.

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