Guwahati: All those who have been going gaga about India’s prolific run in the 50-over ODI World Cup 2023 are now mum or stunned by the way India lost in their first test match held at South Africa on Boxing Day at the Super Sports Park in Centurion from 26th December 2023.
Losing a test match in three days for an Indian team of this caliber raises a lot of questions. And we need to delve into those before it is too late.
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Many boast of India’s bench strength but they forgot an adage that a team is as good as its Test team performs.
With the advent of 20:20, we seem to have forgotten the way players bat and grind in a test match and that was evident in the way almost all the Indian batters barring Virat Kohli and KL Rahul played in the test.
When India was put into bat on a cloudy morning by South African captain Temba Bavuma it was certain that the Indian batsmen would find it tough to score even 200 on that pitch.
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But thanks to KL Rahul’s brilliant knock of 101, India could manage 245 in the first innings and pundits believed that it was a great score on that pitch which had variable bounce.
Virat Kohli also looked quite ominous till he was done in by a scorcher of a delivery by South African pacer Kagiso Rabada. He could manage to score only 38.
Virat was given a lifeline when he got dropped at the score of 4 by Tony de Zorzi. Had Zorzi caught the sitter of Virat at that score India could not have even managed to score 200 in the first innings.
All the other batsmen were out to terrible shots and that was even vindicated by Sachin Tendulkar when he wrote that the way most of the Indian batsmen batted in both the innings was way below par.
“From whatever I watched, India’s shot selection left much to be desired,” wrote the master blaster.
Where India lost it: South Africa’s 1st Innings
According to all the commentators present during the match, the score India had put up in the first innings was a competitive one and South African inexperienced batsmen were supposed to find this bowling attack of India’s difficult to handle.
The scenario though turned out to be quite different as we saw only Bumrah making some impact in that variable bouncy pitch and all the other bowlers going for a lot of runs.
Prasidh Krishna was making his debut, he got to know the hard way that test cricket is not the same as playing 20:20 cricket.
Prasidh bowled 20 overs conceding 93 runs and could manage only a solitary wicket.
Shardul Thakur who was roped into the test as a supposed all-rounder bowled 9 overs and leaked 101 runs and took one wicket and his economy was more than 5 in a test match.
Ravi Shastri minced no words when he was asked about Shardul’s performance in the match.
“Shardul Thakur is not a baby, but he is the 4th seamer. You need a proper third seamer and that makes a massive difference overseas.”
Mohammed Siraj bowled 24 overs and gave away 91 runs and took two wickets and as expected the pick of the bowler was Jasprit Bumrah who bowled 26.4 overs and gave away 69 runs and took 4 wickets.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma acknowledged that Bumrah didn’t get the support he needed in the test match and that resulted in conceding more than 400 against the opposition.
“We didn’t bowl well. This wasn’t a 400-run wicket. We gave away a lot of runs this happens. We can’t depend too much on one bowler the rest of the bowlers have to do their job. We can learn from the way the opposition bowled.’
South Africa managed to score 408 in the 1st innings with Dean Elgar scoring 185 and Marco Jensen scoring a valuable 84 not out.
India missed the service of India’s star performer in the World Cup Mohammad Shami in the test match and this was highlighted both by the India captain as well as Indian former coach Ravi Shastri.
“What he has done for our team over the years, obviously it’s a big miss but someone will come in place of him, try and fill in that role and it will not be easy but we have confidence,” Rohit said a day before the test match.
But sadly for Rohit, Shami’s boots were too big for pacers like Prasidh or Shardul to fill and India learned it the hard way.
Sometimes it is good to fall from the top as it results in knowing exactly where you stand as a team in the test arena.
Insult to Injury: India’s 2nd Innings
If India’s young batsmen had learned anything from the 1st innings they would not have repeated the same mistakes in the second innings.
But after conceding a lead of 163 runs, Indian batsmen seemed to be in a hurry to lose the test match and get back to the dressing room.
The whole team was bundled out for a mere 131 and India lost the match by an innings and 32 runs to give South Africa their first win in the series and ensure that they now don’t have any chance of losing the series as we have only one test match left to be played which starts from the 3rd of January 2024.
Only Virat Kohli seemed to be in control in the second innings and he scored more than 60 per cent of the team total. Virat was the last batsman to be dismissed for 76.
The frustration that Virat was going through in the second innings was apparent as he saw one after another batter getting out leaving him stranded in the other end.
Hindsight: Did India miss the service of Rahane and Pujara?
In Indian cricket, it is not new that we do not know how to give farewell to legends of the game.
Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Saurav Ganguly, or even Virender Sehwag never got to get what they wanted from the team.
They were just one day told that they were not needed.
The same happened with Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara. We all know what these two batsmen have done in overseas test cricket for the country and if they would not have been there we would not have conquered Australia in Australia not once but twice.
The quest in South Africa though remains a long-distance dream.
The last time India toured South Africa was in 2021, India lost the test series which led to Virat losing India’s captaincy and Rohit was given the seat at the box office.
This year Rohit seems to be at the receiving end and India is again on the verge of losing another test series in South Africa.
Rohit has already been replaced as captain by Hardhik Pandya in the Mumbai Indian IPL team.
Now it remains to be seen if Rohit retains India’s test captaincy after this dubious test tour with his score reading 5 and 0 in the First Test.
Rohit needs a miracle to happen in the 2nd test and miracles always don’t happen overnight. India will hope that they can turn the tables but it is going to be a daunting task and the second test will be a testament to the true character of this Indian Test Team.
Immediately after the loss, Avesh Khan has been roped into the team who is already playing in South Africa for the India A team.
Avesh took a five-wicket haul in that match which prompted the selection.
Let us hope that Indian coach Rahul Dravid who is also called “The Wall” can impose some rational thinking in the minds of this young Indian test batting line-up, who still seems to be in white ball cricket mode.
So let’s wait and see what transpires in the second test which starts on January 3, 2024, at St George’s Park in Gqeberha.