India vs South Africa: Are India even aware of their strengths and weaknesses?

India captain Rohit Sharma sang different tunes pre and post the first Test against South Africa at Centurion. India came into the competition with a No 1 Test ranking and having recently appeared in the World Cup final, playing with a never-seen-before swagger. After the World Cup came the T20I series win over Australia at home and the ODI series victory over South Africa in the Rainbow Nation. In the pre-match press conference, the swagger was on for Rohit as he spoke about how India deserved “at least” a win in South Africa for all the hard work they had put in. “We have never won a series here and it’ll be a big thing if we do it here. I don’t know whether it’ll be able to take away the pain of World Cup defeat. If we are able to achieve it then it’ll be a good thing. Itna mehnat kiya hai toh kuch toh jeetna banta hai (Since we have worked so hard, we deserve this at least),” Rohit said on Monday, a day before the Test started at the SuperSport Park. Just a reminder here that India had never won a Test series in South Africa before the Centurion Test of December 2023 and the record stays the same as Rohit and Co suffered an humiliating innings and 32 runs defeat . The game was over inside three days and Rohit was singing a different tune . “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,” Rohit said during the post-match presentation. The narrative ahead of the first of the two Tests revolved around India aiming to clinch the ‘Final Frontier’ and just three days later it was about India being technically not ready for South African conditions. But it makes you wonder how come the world’s No 1 side across formats and the richest board (BCCI) in world cricket can be so poor in assessing where they stand with respect to a challenge and what is needed. Did India really stand a chance to win a Test series in South Africa with the current squad? If not, was everything necessary done to enhance their chances of winning Tests in South Africa? Are India unaware of their strengths and weaknesses? India needed a reality check Every decision taken around the Test series and ahead of it shows that the Indian team and BCCI need a reality check. Just because India dominate the cricket economy and as a result of it the popularity charts, doesn’t necessarily mean they are a good cricketing side. Players and preparation are the cornerstones of a good cricketing side. India were poor in both departments. For example, India have now lost five straight Tests in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) since Rahul Dravid took over as coach in November 2021. [caption id=“attachment_12903712” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Not taking Ajinkya Rahane to South Africa looks like a blunder now. AP[/caption] The first two of the five losses came in South Africa in early 2022 when India had a 1-0 lead in a three-match series. Then came the defeat to England at Edgbaston in July 2022 followed by the World Test Championship final loss to Australia at The Oval in June 2023 and the obliteration at Centurion. The story of all these reputation-damaging defeats has been the same; batters have failed to put up runs in difficult conditions and bowlers have failed to turn up when it mattered the most. In the two Tests in South Africa, India did not get to 300 even once in four innings. They lost the matches despite winning the toss in both Tests and yet for the 2023 tour there was no practice game ahead of the Test series. Can you believe that? Maybe the right way to explain India’s loss is they became a victim of their hubris or probably BCCI didn’t care enough about the ‘Final Frontier’ as much as experts and fans did. A series of two Tests that doesn’t give you any chance of winning the contest if you lose the first match is extremely disappointing but not having a practice game ahead of Tests in arguably the most difficult batting conditions in the world is like deciding the defeat even before the contest began. Team selection blunders Now let’s come to the team selection. Even in England and in the WTC final, the batting from the Indian cricketers was below average barring a few players. In England, it was Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja who scored hundreds and in the WTC final Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli got some runs. Barring these three-four names, Rohit, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer and Rahul had been ordinary and almost all of them failed once again in South Africa. Not taking Rahane to South Africa looks like a massive blunder. Now this is not to say that India need to drop all these batters. There’s a reason they are in the team, having proven themselves against the others, but the past matches also show that more often than not India continue to rely on individual brilliance rather than team effort in batting in SENA Tests. Just to reiterate, not having one or two quality practice games and relying on just one three-day intra-squad game was nothing short of a crime. Also if your best batters continue to disappoint in the toughest conditions so often, you might as well play the second-rank players. [caption id=“attachment_13560512” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Prasidh Krishna’s Test debut proved to be a nightmare for the bowler. AP[/caption] The team selection can also be questioned in the bowling department. Umesh Yadav was part of the squad just earlier this year. If he was good enough to be picked for the WTC Final, why was he not taken to South Africa? Umesh may not be India’s third or fourth choice pacer but once Mohammed Shami was ruled out, he should have been there to assist Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. An inexperienced Prasidh Krishna was instead thrown into the cauldron and he failed the test rather embarrassingly. A bowler who has only played 13 First-Class matches so far and struggled with back injuries recently was asked to bowl long and demanding spells. Was asked to contain runs with impeccable control. In fact, Krishna had been so rusty in the long format that when he played for India A earlier this month, it was his first First-Class match in 21 months. With Krisha and Shardul Thakur as change bowlers, India, BCCI and selectors dig their own graves. Test cricket is no child’s play and it was proven by how the duo of Krishna and Thakur were battered by the Proteas batters at Centurion. You need supreme physical fitness, concentration and discipline to be effective in Test cricket. All of this was missing from Krishna and Thakur. The preparation for the Test series and the selection was way off the mark and India paid the price by missing the opportunity to conquer the ‘Final Frontier’. But to make sure they don’t fall into the same on another tour to a SENA country, BCCI needs to make sure that the preparation and team selection stay spot on.