The tour of New Zealand proved to be extremely disappointing and one of the worst phases in the international career of veteran Indian opening batsman Rohit Sharma. In the fifth and final match of the five-match ODI series against New Zealand, the bat of the Indian maestro remained completely silent once again. During this crucial encounter, Rohit failed to spend time at the crease and returned to the pavilion after scoring just 7 runs from 13 balls. Throughout this entire series, he failed to play a single substantial innings and ended up registering the lowest batting average of his one day international career as an opening batsman.
Managed to score only 30 runs in entire series
Having got the opportunity to bat in four matches of this five-match ODI series, Rohit Sharma could manage a total of only 30 runs from his bat. In the opening match of the series, he was dismissed without opening his account for a duck. Then in the second match, he could only score 23 runs. In the fourth match, Rohit once again walked back after getting out on zero, and now in the fifth and final match, he couldn't progress beyond 7 runs. 50.50 as an opener in any single ODI series is the worst performance of Rohit Sharma across his entire international cricket career.
Became the victim of fast bowler Matthew Fisher
During this fifth match against New Zealand, Rohit Sharma became the victim of fast bowler Matthew Fisher. In the match, fast bowler Matthew Fisher delivered a sharp good length ball around the off stump at a blistering speed of 146 kilometers per hour. The ball stopped slightly on the pitch after pitching, which Rohit attempted to flick away. However, the ball went straight into the hands of Dean Foxcroft standing at short midwicket, and he grabbed a comfortable catch to bring an end to Rohit Sharma's highly disappointing innings.
Team India also failed to get a good start
The direct and negative impact of this continuous poor form and failure of Rohit Sharma was clearly visible on Team India's opening stands. Throughout the series, Team India failed to get a solid and dependable start even once. This unwanted coincidence of not being able to stitch even a single fifty plus opening partnership in any ODI series consisting of four or more matches has happened with the Indian team after a gap of nearly eight years, while earlier during the tour of South Africa in the years 2017 and 2018, the Indian opening pair failed to record any half-century partnership across six innings, and a similar unwanted record has now been repeated on the New Zealand tour.