Former South African pacer Shaun Pollock highlighted the reasons behind India’s Test series loss against the Proteas. 

Team India’s wait for their maiden Test series win in South Africa continued as the hosts thumped the Virat Kohli-led side by seven wickets in the third match to clinch the series 2-1. 

Team India had a great start to their tour to South Africa as they defeated the home side by 113 runs in the first Test in Centurion. However, after that nothing went their way as they were at the receiving end of two 7-wicket defeats in the last two matches. 

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Following India’s loss, their batting department has come under scanner as many are of the opinion that their poor show with the bat in the last two Tests let them down and eventually cost them the series. 

In an interaction with Dinesh Karthik on Cricbuzz, Shaun Pollock talked about the difficult batting conditions in the series, especially for the openers. He said KL Rahul capitalized on the "easiest" time to bat while Rishabh Pant judiciously used his "natural talent".

“There were only two hundreds, weren't there? And a 96 in the series (by Dean Elgar) batting-wise. I think Day 1 at Centurion was probably the easiest of the batting conditions and KL Rahul didn't miss up on the opportunity. He was great. It got more difficult for openers in particular with those new balls on the trampoline surfaces that we had. 

“Rishabh Pant, that's a natural talent and that's why we also stressed on the point that don't throw it away after three deliveries running down the wicket, you're better than that. You can have a massive impact,” Shaun Pollock said. 

Pollock lauded Shardul Thakur for his heroics in Johannesburg but said that he was surprised that he along with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami didn’t bowl in the post-lunch-session of Day 4 of the third Test in Cape Town. 

“Thakur was brilliant at the Wanderers. I was surprised they (Bumrah, Shami and Thakur) didn't bowl the session after lunch break. I couldn't work that one out, thought it was almost a bit of a donation!” he said. 

Shaun Pollock further stressed that Team India scored only around 200 runs in the third innings of the last two Tests, which wasn’t enough. He admitted that if they could’ve posted a lead of over 300 runs in both innings, South Africa wouldn’t have been able to knock that off. 

He added that with South Africa not being the strongest and Team India already 1-0 up in the series, they didn’t play as the No.1 team after that. 

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“I think where India lost in the series, twice, was in the third innings in the second and third Test. You just got around 200.. they needed to get a big score, maybe they were lured into (thinking) that 200 was enough, whereas I think they could've posted a lead over 300 on both occasions,” he concluded. 

“South Africa wouldn't have been able to knock that off but I think you always do get a few positives that come out of it. I just do think India lost the opportunity coming here, having won in England and Australia. The South African side not at its strongest, having gone 1-0, you gotta feel that there's a number one team in the world and it can ram up the home advantage there,” he concluded. 

After the conclusion of the Test series, both the teams will now cross swords against each other in the ODI series, which will kick start from 19th January. 

(Cricbuzz inputs)