Former India head coach Ravi Shastri expressed his disappointment with Rohit Sharma’s captaincy after lunch during the second day of the Boxing Day Test against South Africa in Centurion. It seemed that the 36-year-old captain failed to maintain the pressure on the South African team by not rotating the correct bowlers.
After India scored 245 in their first innings, the Test match was level at 49/1 with South Africa at the time of the lunch break. Given the conditions and movement on offer in the pitch, it was expected that India would come out all guns blazing in the post-lunch session.
However, this was not the case, as Dean Elgar and Tony de Zorzi went on to produce a flurry of boundaries in the second session.
Speaking on Star Sports, Ravi Shastri felt that Shardul and Prasidh should have been the last pair to start the proceedings after the lunch break. The former India all-rounder seemed bemused and irritated by India’s tactics of the Indian team management.
“This is something we have talked about a few times when I was a coach, and most of the time at the beginning of the session we would play our two best bowlers. I made the choice,” Ravi Shastri said.
Rohit Sharma’s decision to start the session with Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna in place of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj came at a cost to the Indian team as they conceded more runs in the match. turned out to be large. Shardul and Prasidh bowled some good balls, but their lines and length were not as consistent as India would have liked.
This Is Something Rahul Dravid And Rohit Sharma Must Have Thought – Sanjay Manjrekar
Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar also believes that India missed an opportunity by not using their frontline bowlers after lunch. Meanwhile, Vernon Philander believes the Men in Blue wanted to protect Jasprit Bumrah, who was bowling long before lunch, but that decision came at a cost to the team.
“Obviously India missed a trick. Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma must have thought about this during the break and decided on Prasidh and Shardul,” says Sanjay Manjrekar he said.
“Maybe they wanted to keep him (Bumrah) around after the six-over period when he bowled (before lunch). I think it’s a missed opportunity by India. India gave South Africa a boost after lunch, conceding 42 goals. “It was a missed opportunity,” said Vernon Philander.
Back to the bowl: This is the third over of Bumrah’s spell. Jasprit Bumrah managed to bounce the ball from long length and caught the outside edge of De Sorge’s bat to score 28 points.
The wicket of Keegan Pietersen soon followed, with the wicket falling back to the right-hander’s stumps. These two quick wickets of his got India back into the match and then the partnership of Marco Jansen strong> and Dean Elgar put the team in a comfortable position.
