Former captain Sunil Gavaskar has shared his opinion on India’s playing XI for the second and final Test against South Africa. The match is scheduled to be played from January 3 in Cape Town.

India suffered a crushing defeat in the first Test at the SuperSport Park in Centurion last week. The Proteas outplayed and comprehensively outclassed India to win the Test in three days. The Temba Bavuma-led team inflicted a humiliating innings defeat on the Rohit Sharma-led team.

The hosts won the first Test by an innings and 32 runs to take an unassailable lead in the two-match series. The defeat also ended India’s hopes of winning its first Test series in South Africa. Not only the batsmen but also the bowlers also failed to make an impact despite the favorable bowling conditions.

In the first innings, India were bowled out for just 245 despite KL Rahul scoring a century. In response, the home team amassed a massive total of 408 runs thanks to a sublime knock of 185 runs from opener Dean Elgar and half-centuries from David Bedingham (56) and Marco Jansen (84*).

Trailing by 163 runs, India had another poor batting performance in the second innings. They were bowled out for just 131 runs in 35 overs. Only Virat Kohli (76) and Shubman Gill (26) managed to reach the double-digit mark during the disastrous batting display.

Sunil Gavaskar plays eleven for the second Test:

Speaking on Star Sports, Sunil Gavaskar said that he would not like India to make too many changes to the team combination despite the heavy defeat in the first Test. The former India captain said Ravindra Jadeja is likely to return to the team after missing the first Test due to a back spasm.

Sunil Gavaskar said Ravichandran Ashwin would make way for Jadeja. The legendary batsman also opined that Mukesh Kumar could replace Prasidh Krishna in the team after the latter’s poor performance in the first Test.

“My playing XI would be, not too many changes, I think Jadeja, once fit, will return to the team at the expense of Ravichandran Ashwin. That’s what it seems to me because Ravichandran Ashwin was barely used in the previous game,” Sunil Gavaskar said.

“There could be a change in terms of new bowling balls with Mukesh Kumar replacing Prasidh Krishna,” he added.

Sunil Gavaskar’s India playing XI for 2nd Test:

Rohit Sharma(c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar