Ravi Shastri asks Team India to take radical approach in second Test to force win vs South Africa: ‘You can't wait to bat…’

Former India coach Ravi Shastri has given radical advice to the Rishabh Pant-led home team to force a positive result in the ongoing second Test against South Africa at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati. With South Africa scoring 489 in the first innings and two days already gone, there’s a feeling that the match is either heading towards a draw or a victory for the Proteas.

India ended Day 2 on 9/0 with both KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal remaining not out. The management would be hoping for a big opening partnership on Day 3 of the second Test to ease the pressure on the team.

Shastri asks India to declare while trailing

Meanwhile, Shastri has asked the Gautam Gambhir-coached Team India to adopt a bold approach. Shastri said that, considering the time constraints of the match, India must not wait to take a lead, but rather play aggressively and declare, perhaps a few runs short, to force a win in the game.

“Tactically India will have to take a call tomorrow. See how they get through the new ball, and then take the game forward, and force a win in this Test match. They’ll have to call the shots, which means you might even want to declare behind. Then try and bowl out the opposition quickly in the second innings.

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“You’ve got to take those chances. You can’t wait to bat and go past 489, that’ll take a long time. Might have to even declare 80, 90, 100 runs behind and see how it goes,” Shastri told Star Sports.

That will not be a unique thing. Teams have often declared in the second innings while trailing. It has happened 33 times in Test cricket, including four times by India. But only thrice has a team gone on to win a match.

India lost the match the first time they did that against Australia in Melbourne in 1948. India declared their second innings while trailing by 103 runs, but went on to lose.

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Similar attempts against Pakistan (trail by 41 runs in 1978 in Faisalabad), against England (trail by 1 run in Kanpur in 1982) and against England again (trail by 4 runs in Nagpur in 2012) ended in a draw.