Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra analyzed Team India’s loss in the first Test of the series against South Africa at Centurion. He feels the innings defeat was humbling for the visitors and no one looked really convincing.
India looked in a bad mood in the first test against South Africa in Centurion. The Rohit Sharma-led team had a torrid outing with both bat and ball and didn’t even win a session, which speaks volumes about the kind of performance they put in the game.
Batting-wise, it was a torrid outing for them in both the innings. In the first rehearsal, they fought from the beginning. But thanks to KL Rahul who played a magnificent ton to take the team to a total of 245 runs. The players did not get moving because they seemed timid against the batters.
Indian bowlers conceded 408 runs and South Africa took a lead of 163 runs. So the batsmen were expected to perform better, but that was the case. It turned out to be a forgettable outing as they were bowled out for just 131 runs to face an innings and 32-run thrashing.
Only Virat Kohli (76) looked calm at the crease and off break, no other batsman looked good. They couldn’t even get past the 30-run mark as the South African bowlers were all over them.
Aakash Chopra said he was optimistic about India returning to the game before Day 3. He praised KL Rahul and Virat Kohli for their innings and pointed out that at rest all the other batsmen struggled. Speaking on Jio Cinema, he explained:
“When the third day’s play began, I felt there was a realistic chance that an Indian fright back. But that didn’t happen. An innings defeat is quite humiliating. Except for (KL) Rahul in the first innings and (Virat) Kohli in the second, the others did not look convincing.”
IND vs SA: No one seemed willing to act ugly, take body blows and stay – Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra further lashed out at the Indian team and said that no one seemed to be getting body blows. He noted that the fighting spirit was not evident in the visiting team.
Aakash Chopra criticized Rohit Sharma for his dismissal against Kagiso Rabada. He also pointed out the inexperience of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer. He elaborated:
“No one seemed willing to act ugly, take body blows and stay. Rohit Sharma was out off (Kagiso) Rabada in both the innings. Yashasvi Jaiswal is still far from understanding these conditions. Shreyas Iyer was not looking good. India needed to hold four or five sessions, which did not happen.”
India will now look to make a comeback in the second Test against South Africa. The match will take place in Cape Town on January 3. The dream of winning the series in Proteas remains a dream for the Indian team. However, they would hope to win the game and get some important WTC points as they fell to 6th place in the points table.