Famously called as the “Final Frontier ” The South African Test Series began on a rather sad note for Rohit Sharma led Indian Team under the management of coach Rahul Dravid. South Africans in their own backyard humiliated the Indians with colossal innings and 32 runs defeat with 3 and half days of the Iconic Boxing day test match with no Indian Batter apart from KL Rahul in the 1st innings and Virat Kohli in the 2nd innings showed grit and determination to put on the fight against the fiery South African pace attack
More lackluster and shambolic performance on the pitch that supported considerable swing alongside pace and bounce were the performances of Indian bowlers who were unable to extract any in compared to their counterparts who ripped aside the Indian batting line up comprising of the mixture of youth and experience seasoned players.
Such was the wayward performance of Indian bowlers except Bumrah that South Africa even without the services of Captain Temba Bavuma who did not bat due to hamstring injury sustained in the match racked up a mountain of runs 408 for 9 wickets to be precise after bundling India for 245 runs thanks to century from KL Rahul and taking the lead of 163 runs in their first Innings.
This lead proved more than enough for their quicks to rattle out India in the second innings for mere 131 runs with no batter apart from Virat Kohli showed resistance and grit to even stand on with him and forge a partnership decent enough. It clearly showed the lack of experience Indian youths with the likes of Shubman Gill Yashasvi Jaiswal had and the impact of performance from Team India which earlier had services of experienced Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane in the SENA countries.
This shambolic defeat however did not go with the Indian fans and they have sorted to all the ways on social media to bash and troll the Indian team which seems right at the moment.
Disappointed Captain Rohit Sharma who himself had a failure with the bat in both the innings scoring 5 and 0 in 2 innings as a opener clearly opened upon the teams dismal performance in the post match show.
We were not good enough to win – Dinesh Karthik
Indian captain Rohit Sharma said that his team failed to deliver with the bat, which resulted in an innings and 32-run loss against South Africa in the first Test.
The 36-year-old pointed out that the batters failed to cash in on boundary opportunities unlike the Proteas, who made the most of the conditions. He, however, credited wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul for being their torch-bearer in the first innings with his gritty century under pressure.
Rohit Sharma’s reaction came as the visitors lost the opening Test inside three days. India were bundled out for 245 and 131 in response to South Africa’s 408. Only Rahul (101 in the first innings) and Virat Kohli (76 in the second innings) looked good with the bat for the visitors on the challenging track with himself managing only 5 and a duck in the two innings as an opener.
Rohit Sharma said in the post-match show:
“We were not good enough to win. Having been put into bat, KL batted well to get us that score, but then we didn’t exploit the conditions with the ball and then again didn’t show up today with the bat.”
“If we have to win Test matches, we have to come together collectively and we didn’t do that. Guys have come here before, we know what to expect and everyone has their own plan,”
“Our batters were challenged and we didn’t adapt well. This is a boundary-scoring ground, we saw them (South Africa) score many but we need to understand the opposition and their strengths as well. We didn’t bat well in both innings, that’s why we stand here,” he added
I don’t want to be too critical – Rohit Sharma defends India’s bowling unit
Rohit Sharma, meanwhile, defended India’s bowling unit despite South Africa scoring 408 runs to take a 163-run lead in the first innings. He pointed out that Mohammad Siraj ,Shardul Thakur and debutant Prasidh Krishna in the absence of experienced Mohammad Shami didn’t have enough experience in South Africa.
He said in the post-match show:
“Not too many positives to finish the game within 3 days, but KL showed what we need to do on this sort of pitch. Our bowlers, a lot of these guys haven’t been here before so I don’t want to be too critical,”
Rohit added that India will regroup and come out as a better side in the must-win second Test.
Important for us to regroup- Rohit Sharma
Now that the Boxing day test ending India’s dream to win a test series in South Africa as India handed South Africa an early leave to celebrate their New Year, it would be interesting to see how Rohit Sharma and his team overcomes the scars of this defeat when they next lock horns with the Proteas in the second and last match of the series in New Year 2024 to be played at Newlands Cape Town to atleast draw the 2 match series 1-1 by winning it.
Though difficult , Rohit Sharma and Indian Team have to keep their beliefs alive as India after this loss has slumped to No 5 IN ICC World Test Championship points table and it would be a humungous task for them to bounce back if they wish to play the final of the elusive ICC title 3rd time in the row in 2025.