India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl against New Zealand in the second ODI in Raipur. However, Rohit had a brain-freezing moment at the toss. The 35-year-old took a while to announce his decision to field and told the presenter, Ravi Shastri, he "forgot" about the team call. Even New Zealand stand-in captain Tom Latham found the incident funny as he and Rohit shared a smile while looking at each other. The incident has gone viral on social media.
"I forgot what we wanted to do, had plenty of discussions with the team about the toss decision, just wanted to challenge ourselves under difficult conditions, but we'll bowl first. Was a good test for us, knowing that the wicket will get better to bat on and that was the challenge in front of us. Bracewell batted well, but we bowled well in the end and won the game. There was a bit of dew during the practice sessions, but we've heard from the curator that it will not play a role on game days. We batted first in Hyderabad, we wanted to bowl first here, same team," Rohit said at the toss.
Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar, who is part of the commentary team for the series, also saw the funny side of the incident and said, "I think he might've had an ice cream before coming to the toss and had a brain-freeze".
The hosts, who lead the three-match series 1-0, remain unchanged in Raipur from their opening win.
New Zealand also kept the same team from their 12-run loss on Wednesday and skipper Tom Latham said he would have also elected to bowl had he won the toss.
India had won the first ODI in Hyderabad by 12 runs, with Shubman Gill scoring a double hundred.
(With AFP Inputs)