India captain Rohit Sharma admitted that the batters fell short of expectations in the first Test against South Africa played in Centurion. India lost this Test by an innings and 32 runs inside three days.
India posted 245 in their first innings with KL Rahul scoring 101 runs, while in the second innings, only Virat Kohli stood tall with a 76-run knock as India was bundled out for 131 runs in 34.1 overs.
This was only the second time in five years that succumbed to an innings defeat overseas. India lasted only 101.5 overs - 67.4 in the first innings and 34.1 in the second. Rohit himself failed in both innings and youngsters Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, and Shreyas Iyer- all on their first tour of South Africa, failed to leave an impression.
Rohit however was not worried about their performances as it is the same set of players who performed well in England and Australia in the last few years.
"There's no need to motivate them. They are all international cricketers. This performance is just one. Don't forget what we did in Australia and England. We won in Australia with our batting. We drew in England with batting and bowling. It's not like we don't know how to bat outside India. Sometimes opposition plays better than you. It's not like they batted 110 overs and we couldn't even do that. You go and check the scorecards of the last four or five away tours we have done," Rohit said in a presser.
Every batter has a distinct method, and it is critical that when they travel to difficult missions such as South Africa, they have a personalized game plan, Rohit said this while citing KL Rahul’s example.
"Look at what KL Rahul did in the first innings. It is a perfect example of showing intent as well as respecting the conditions. He scored at a strike rate of 70 and he put the bad balls away. That is what we talk about intent.
We can’t just go and swing our bats. That’s not the condition to do that. You got to understand that there is a thin line between showing that intent and discipline as well," Rohit said.
Save Bumrah, who took four wickets, and to an extent Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, and Prasidh Krishna got pasting of their lives.
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"This was not a 400-run wicket and we gave too many runs. We sprayed the ball all around, but it happened. One can’t depend on one particular bowler (Bumrah), the other three pacers also needed to perform their roles, we could learn from how South Africa bowled," Rohit said after the match.
He admitted that although there wasn't a lack of effort, Bumrah couldn’t alone keep the pressure on Proteas batters.
"Bumrah bowled well and we all know his quality. All he wanted was a bit of support which he didn’t get. That happens. All three tried hard, bending their backs but didn’t happen the way we wanted it to. But games like these teach you much about what you want to do as a bowling unit,” the skipper observed.
(Hindustan Times/Indian Express inputs)
