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.
“That’s something that we’ve had a discussion multiple times when I was the coach. And more often than not we decided to go with the best two bowlers at the start of the session,” Ravi Shastri said.
Rohit Sharma’s decision to start the session with Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna instead of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj proved to be costly for the Indian team, as they leaked more runs in the game. Although Shardul and Prasidh bowled a few good balls, their lines and lengths 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 thinks that the Men in Blue wanted to protect Jasprit Bumrah who had bowled a long spell before lunch, and this decision proved to be costly for the team.
“Clearly, India missed the trick. This is something Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma must have thought about during the break and then decided to go with Prasidh and Shardul,” Sanjay Manjrekar said.
“Perhaps they wanted to preserve him (Bumrah) after the 6-over spell he bowled (before lunch). I think it’s a window of opportunity that India lost. India gave away 42 runs and that gave South Africa the momentum after lunch. They lost an opportunity,” Vernon Philander said.
Returning to bowl, this is Bumrah’s third over of the spell. Jasprit Bumrah got one to bounce from a length, catching the outside edge of de Zorzi’s bat for 28.
Keegan Peetersen’s wicket followed soon after as one carried back to the right-hander’s stumps. These two quick wickets brought India back into the game before Marco Jansen and Dean Elgar’s partnership put the team in a comfortable spot.