New Delhi: The Indian cricket team, who performed rather dominantly during the white ball series in South Africa fell down flat in the red ball series as they were demolished in the first test match by the Proteas pacers.
India came into the series after ending the T20I series 1-1, while registering their second-ever ODI series win in South Africa, and hoping to continue their momentum and win their first-ever test series in the Rainbow Nation.
However, the complete collapse of the batting order in both innings, while receiving no help from the bowling department, sent the visitors 0-1, down in the two-match series.
Rohit Sharma and company will now need to step their game up in the second test match, if they want to end the series on level terms.
The second test match is scheduled to take place at the Newlands Stadium in Cape Town from Wednesday, January 3.
📍Cape Town#TeamIndia have arrived for the second #SAvIND Test 👌🏻👌🏻 pic.twitter.com/VGCTdk7yzO
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 1, 2024
Batsmen need to show fight
One of the biggest differences between the two sides during the first test match was their batting.
While the Indian team in both innings were carried by one single batsman, i.e., KL Rahul in the first innings and Virat Kohli in the second innings, the Proteas only batted for one innings and with the help of collective efforts from Dean Elgar and David Bedingham and Marco Jansen, posted a huge total on the board to push the Indian team out of the match.
Epicness called @klrahul pic.twitter.com/IFyK2TdwbU
— Riteish Deshmukh (@Riteishd) December 27, 2023
Indian batsmen need to follow in the footsteps of the South African team and have to put on a collective effort in batting in order to register a win in the second match.
Lack of experience in bowling
The difference between the quality of bowling between the Indian and South African bowling unit was on display during the first match, as except for Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj, no other Indian bowler looked threatening enough, while on the other hand, for South Africa, Kagiso Rabada, Nandre Burger, Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee all were on top of Indian batsmen, never allowing them any breathing space during the entire match.
WHAT A BALL, BUMRAH. 🐐pic.twitter.com/La11PlKI2P
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) December 28, 2023
Indian bowlers need to complement each other in order to put pressure on the home side.
Expected changes
Both India and South Africa are expected to make changes in their squad for the second test match on Wednesday.
Ravichandran Ashwin can be seen making for returning Ravindra Jadeja, as the southpaw, along with his quality spin, brings depth in that batting line-up, while Mukesh Kumar can also find a place in the playing Xi, after a nightmare outing from Prasidh Krishna during the first test match.
#TeamIndia are back in the nets and prepping 🆙 for the 2nd Test in Cape Town👌👌#SAvIND pic.twitter.com/zcY5J0FafW
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 31, 2023
The home team can also be seen making changes, as their star player Gerald Coetzee has been ruled out of the second test match due to suffering a pelvic injury in the first test match.
