Hosts India crashed to an embarrassing 408-run defeat at the hands of South Africa as the current WTC holders clean swept India 2-0 in the 2-match series. India’s fortress has been breached for the second time in 12 months after New Zealand had swept the Men in Blue 3-0 in October-November 2024. From start to finish, India were outplayed and brutally exposed where they stand in Test cricket and because of this defeat they have slipped to 5th in points table below Pakistan as well. There are multiple reasons for their loss and we will pick 3 of them in this piece.
Inability to take lower order wickets quickly in first innings put India on backfoot
South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first on a decent pitch and started well losing 2 wickets across 2 sessions. India did well to claw things back as they got 4 wickets in the final session of play to keep the visitors at bay at 247/6 at the end of Day 1. People expected India to come out next morning and wrap the innings up quickly but that was not to be as the lower middle order wagged big time.
Kyle Verreynne played well for his 45 and consumed 122 balls. But it was Senuran Muthusamy who was the real hero with maiden Test ton scoring 109 off 206 balls before Marco Jansen played a blinder scoring 93 off 91 balls as South Africa recovered from a tricky position to get to a mammoth 489 all out. India lacked ideas and imaginative fields and thinking bowling to the lower order and were clueless to say the least. The field was well spread out and it made things easy for the Proteas in the end.
India needs to seriously look at this area of conceding runs to the lower order batters and plug it whenever the next Test series is held. Conceding more than 200 runs for the last 4 wickets shifted the momentum from which India couldn’t really recover. The bowling as a whole was not up to the mark but conceding 489 where South Africa could have been restricted to 350 was one of the big turning points in the game.
Losing 6/27 in a span of 11 overs in first innings practically sealed India’s fateÂ
After conceding a massive 489 in the first innings, India got off to a decent start courtesy of openers KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal as they put on 65 for the first wicket. Rahul got out and then Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan added another 30 runs for the second wicket before Jaiswal fell after scoring fifty and the score from 95/1 to 95/2. It is from this position that the tables turned and everybody fell like a pack of cards.
Sai Sudharsan fell next and was followed by Dhruv Jurel who played a poor shot and got out. The captain Rishabh Pant played a horrendous shot and got out while Nitish Kumar Reddy and Ravindra Jadeja too fell to leave the Indians at 122/7 in 43.3 overs. This was where the game was as good as over and even though Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav fought towards the end, they could only help the score to 201 and not avoid the follow-on but it was not enforced.
The batting failed as a whole no doubt, but collapses like this does not help anyone. It is not the first time that India have collapsed in the Gautam Gambhir era. It has happened multiple times in the past and if India are to improve in Test cricket, they need to have the right technique and temperament to succeed. Such collapses in a heap needs to be stopped and till this is done, Indian cricket in Test matches will continue to struggle either home or away.
Lack of role clarity and batting positions in the team is hurting the Indian Test Team
One of the main talking points and struggles of the Indian Test team is how the management is handling certain players and there seems to be a lack of role clarity in the team for the players. In Test cricket, one needs to have a stable team and batting line-up and not too much chopping and changing. But this Indian team is having that and it is showing in the results. Even in the second Test, there were certain moves and batters batting out of position.
Firstly, Washington Sundar , a talented player and all-rounder kind of because of his batting. One gets confused what his role in the team is. In the first Test in Kolkata, Sundar bowled only one over where 3 more spinners were involved and batted at 3 and did decently but he was a pure batter in this game. Cut to the second game in Guwahati and India pushed Sundar down to Number 8 down the order and he did decently there with bat and bowled a long spell. But what is his role in the team, the player himself is confused and wants to be flexible.
Then we have the curious case of Nitish Kumar Reddy. He gets a chance in the XI and then either bats or bowls or does nothing. What is his role in the team needs to be discussed. Whether he is a batting all-rounder or bowling all-rounder or neither. When he bowls, it is limited overs and when he bats, he is batting way down the order. In this Test, he was just a passenger making the numbers and not contributing at all.
Then too much flexibility in batting positions like Sai Sudharsan’s case. He scored a good 80 odd against West Indies and then was dropped from the playing XI in Kolkata. He came back in this Guwahati Test and was confused despite him batting at 3. He may have had a thinking of place in the side as Number 3 has been a revolving door which has hurt India big time. They have tried 7 players in a year in this Number 3 spot. But they have no solution. In order to improve, India needs to have role clarity, play specialists players and not all-rounders for the sake of it and also sense of security to a player is also important.
There are a lot of areas for India to improve and one hopes there is a thorough post-mortem done and India comes out of this dark phase soon. India don’t play a Test match till August 2026, but the time for introspection and everything should begin as soon as possible.
What Lies Ahead
The Test series is done and dusted and it’s time now for the 3-match ODI series between the two teams. The first ODI between India and South Africa takes place in Ranchi on Sunday 30th November 2025 at 1:30 PM IST. India will be led by KL Rahul in absence of regular skipper Shubman Gill while Temba Bavuma will lead South Africa. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will be back in action and fans will be eager to watch them in action.
Let’s see what the ODI series has instore for all of us and whether India can keep the Test series aside and start afresh or will South Africa run away with this match as well riding on wonderful momentum.
Also Read:Â IND vs SA: Proteas Finish Off Job After An Amazing Bowling Performance