IND vs SA: Team India’s batting in the first innings of the ongoing India vs South Africa 1st Test in Centurian was disappointing, although, KL Rahul did manage to bail the team out of a crisis, but what’s more disappointing was Rohit Sharma’s captaincy during the South African innings. Rohit Sharma has had a frustrating outing so far in the contest and his tactics have certainly not worked for the team.
After getting caught at a meagre score of 5 runs in the first innings in his bid to play the ultra-ambitious pull shot, Rohit Sharma has been caught off guard a couple of times with his poor captaincy in the test proceedings so far.
Former Indian coach and renowned commentator, Ravi Shastri, also, seemed livid with Rohit Sharma’s strategies for the game, especially after lunch on day two of the India vs South Africa test.
Notably, Team India began with the services of Shardul Thakur and debutant Prasidh Krishna after lunch on day two. The two bowled in tandem but instead of restricting the opposition and making run-scoring much harder, the two conceded easy boundaries throughout their spell.
The two aforementioned pacers gifted away 42 runs in the first 40 minutes of play post-lunch, which certainly worked in the favour of the opposition. Dean Elgar and Tony de Zorzi collected easy runs and made the equation much simpler for the South African team in response to India’s 245-run total.
Criticising Rohit Sharma’s move of opening with Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna instead of the two mainstay bowlers in Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj, Ravi Shastri pointed out that more often than not it’s the senior bowlers who start off the proceedings of a session.
IND vs SA: Ravi Shastri, Manjrekar not pleased with Rohit Sharma’s Captaincy
“On any pecking order, these two (Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna) would have been the last to start the proceedings (after lunch),” said Shastri on air. “That’s something that we’ve had a discussion multiple times when I was the coach. And more often than not we decided to go with the best two bowlers at the start of the session.”
Another Indian commentator, Sanjay Manjrekar also noted that Team India and Rohit Sharma missed the trick early on in the South African innings.
“Clearly India missed the trick. This is something Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma must have thought about during the break and then decided to go with Prasidh and Shardul,” said Sanjay Manjrekar on air.
Former Protea pacer Vernon Philander also reiterated that not giving the opening spell to Jasprit Bumrah has allowed South Africa to build momentum.
“Perhaps they wanted to preserve him (Bumrah) after the 6-over spell he bowled (before lunch). I think it’s a window of opportunity that India lost. India gave away 42 runs and that gave South Africa the momentum after lunch. They lost an opportunity,” said Vernon Philander.
Interestingly, after Rohit Sharma removed Shardul and Prasidh from the attack and introduced Bumrah, the ace pacer immediately struck twice and gave the much-needed breakthrough to the side.
First, Jasprit Bumrah got rid of Tony de Zorzi in the final delivery of the 29th over at a score of 28 runs, then the pacer struck again in his subsequent over to remove Keegan Peterson at a scanty score of 2 runs.
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