IND vs SA: Shardul Thakur suffers blow on shoulder ahead of India vs South Africa 2nd Test: In a bit of a concerning development ahead of the India vs South Africa New Year test, all-rounder Shardul Thakur has suffered a blow on his shoulder. The incident happened during Team India’s optional practice session in Centurian ahead of the 2nd test.
The fast bowling all-rounder was hit on his left shoulder while facing throwdowns at the SuperSport Park on Saturday. He looked in discomfort initially, however, continued to bat despite the pain.
Shardul Thakur was spotted with an ice pack sling bag on his left shoulder after his batting session ended in the SuperSport Park. Though the sources claimed that the all-rounder was fine and no further medical investigation was required, he didn’t have a go in the nets with the ball in hand.
All this happened during Team India’s optional practice session conducted in Centurian after the first India vs South Africa test ended earlier than expected. Skipper Rohit Sharma was present in the session along with the likes of Shardul Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah didn’t opt for the optional training session.
India vs South Africa: Visitors failed to conquer final frontier
It’s worth noting that India’s performance in the Centurian test remained disheartening as it ended inside three days of play. South Africa handed an embarrassing defeat to India by an innings and 32 runs to retain the 2-game test series.
With the defeat, India’s hopes of conquering the final frontier, as the people call it, remained unfulfilled. The best Rohit Sharma and Co can do from here on is to level the series by winning the Cape Town test.
Team India had several problems which were exposed by the Proteas during the first test. Some of them are lack of experience, temperament of the young players, not enough substance in the bowling unit and many more.
The opening combination didn’t work out for the team in both the innings. Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul managed to soak in a bit of pressure during the first innings, but they too failed to go big in the second innings, barring Virat, who felt the need for a stable partner at the other end.
The bowling unit, overall, misfired, barring Jasprit Bumrah. The likes of Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur leaked runs on many occasions and to such an extent that the captain had to put them off to stop the run flow.
The captaincy also became the talk of the town during the first test as Rohit Sharma looked clueless with his approach. Though he is known for his sharp and tactical moves, Rohit’s decisions were highly debatable during the first test.
It remains to be seen what changes Team India will make for the second test, which begins on January 03 at the Newlands in Cape Town.
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