The last six weeks of the year 2023 have not been good for the Indian skipper as he is still trying to pick up the pieces after India's ICC World Cup 2023 final loss. With Dean Elgar leading his last test match would not want Rohit Sharma to be the second Indian captain after MS Dhoni to at least draw the Test series on South African soil
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma (Pic: AFP)
After facing the loss in the first Test match against South Africa, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma needs to bring out a champion attitude in him as Team India will look to equal the test series against South Africa and remain ensuant in the World Test Championship points table. Both teams will clash against each other in Cape Town on Wednesday.
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Currently, India is placed in the sixth spot in the nine-team table with 14 points. Another loss for India affected their further standings. India's most valuable player, Ravindra Jadeja will make a return to the team to add stability in middle-order batting and provide spin options in bowling. But it will be the skipper's choice of third and fourth-speed merchants that will define the embattled team's response.
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As harsh as it might sound, no one knows more than Rohit that Prasidh Krishna is pretty undercooked to counter the vagaries of Test cricket and Shardul Thakur's bits and pieces talent will not win him much on most days. But with three top-order batters, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer compounding the team's worries with their ineptitude while dealing with the bouncer barrage, Shardul's presence gives the side an assumption of batting depth on paper.
Except for KL Rahul in the first innings and Virat Kohli in the second innings, no other Indian batsman was able to handle the extra bounce at Centurion during the first Test match.
With one loss and one draw in three Tests in the new World Test Championship cycle, India would be desperate for a win, which will be easier said than done at the picturesque cricket stadium where the visitors have lost four of their previous six games.
The last six weeks of the year 2023 have not been good for the Indian skipper as he is still trying to pick up the pieces after India's ICC World Cup 2023 final loss.
That final and Rohit have become a tragic love story, and what has added humiliation to the mix is the two-and-a-half-day defeat at Centurion in the run-up to the New Year. The skipper stood as exposed tactically as his batters and bowlers were found to be inept technically in an innings and 32-run defeat.
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There would be no other way to start the new year with a win against South Africa in the second test match.
South Africa has pretty good records against India in Cape Town. With Dean Elgar leading his last test match would not want Rohit Sharma to be the second Indian captain after MS Dhoni to at least draw the Test series on South African soil.
The toss will be crucial at Newlands which is recording temperatures of 33 to 34 degrees and despite decent grass covering, the pitch will be a batting paradise with little help for spinners from either side.
It will therefore not be prudent to retain Ravichandran Ashwin given that Jadeja is fit and available for selection. However, Rohit's biggest decision as skipper would be whether to rely on his specialist batters and replace Shardul and Prasidh with Mukesh Kumar and Avesh Khan.
There's no guarantee that the two rookies, with a combined experience of one Test (played by Mukesh), will pull any rabbit out of the hat. But with their solid experience in first-class cricket, their presence might just give the skipper a stronger shot at a win.
Mukesh has bowled extended spells and is certainly more effective compared to Shardul while Avesh could be the proverbial hit-the-deck bowler, who can put the red cherry on hard lengths and extract steep bounce.
But on a track, which gets better for batting with the passage of time, Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Keegan Petersen, and David Bedingham are a formidable force.
To counter them, the new ball-overs will be vital. Jasprit Bumrah would pray that there is a suitable cloud cover known as "Table Cloth" over the mountains and he is not as unlucky as he was at Centurion where he beat the bat 26 times in his first spell without much success.
If the bowlers need to step up, Rohit, the skipper would also need to tell "Rohit the batter" to buck up. He might be a compulsive hooker and puller of the short ball, but in his heart, Rohit knows that only one career Test hundred in SENA countries in a decade is not a fair reflection of his abilities.
South Africa's lead pacers Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi won't allow Rohit and his side to score easy runs.
Virat Kohli looked in imperious form during both innings of the last Test, getting a beauty from Rabada in the first essay and running out of partners en route to his 76 in the second innings.
However, there are plenty of questions for a circumspect Indian team and sooner it gets the answers, the better it will be for its captain.
Squads:
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Yashashvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kona Bharat, Abhimanyu Easwaran.
South Africa: Dean Elgar (captain), Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Keegan Petersen, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Nandre Burger, Keshav Maharaj, Wiaan Mulder, Zubayr Hamza, Tristan Stubbs.
Match Starts at 1.30pm (IST).
(With PTI Inputs)
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