Team India faced an innings and 32 runs defeat against South Africa in the first Test match. That was a massive defeat of Team India in recent days. The Proteas dominated India since the beginning of the match. Team India failed to make an impact on the team. Before heading to the Test series, Team India played an intra-squad match. Former Indian skipper, Sunil Gavaskar found it unuseful. He thinks practice matches are more impactful. He shared his views on that.
India’s Struggle in the First Test:
After a long time, Team India donned the white jersey against South Africa. Before playing in this Test series, they played an intra-squad match. On December 26, India and South Africa locked horns in the first Test match at Centurion. Since the beginning of the Test match, India has struggled in every department. While batting first, India lost wickets frequently. In the first innings, KL Rahul played an amazing knock of 101 runs in 137 balls. Depending on this, India scored 245 runs in the first innings.
In South Africa’s first innings, India struggled while bowling. Jasprit and Siraj tried well. Bumrah took 4 wickets. 11Prasudh Krishna made his Test debut in this match. He picked up 1 wicket. Ashwin bowled well and took 1 wicket. Shardul Thakur’s bowling display was highly disappointing. He conceded 101 runs and picked up only 1 wicket.
The second inning was even more disappointing. Indian batters failed to play long innings. Virat Kohli was carrying the innings single-handedly. He played a knock of 76 runs. No other batter played well. India got all-out in 131 runs. South Africa won the match by an innings and 32 runs.
Sunil Gavaskar’s Take on that:
The former Indian legend is highly disappointed in Team India’s performance. He finds the intra-squad match was not worth it. He opted for the warm-up matches rather than the intra-squad match. Gavaskar focused on the team’s preparation and analyzed the reasons for this massive defeat.
He said, “The reasons are straightforward – you didn’t play any matches here. If you straightaway play Test matches, it doesn’t work out. Yes, you sent the India A team. The India A team should actually come before the tour.”
Later he added, “You need to play practice matches after coming here. Intra-squad is a joke because would your fast bowlers bowl extremely fast to your batters, would they bowl bouncers, as they would be scared about injuring their batters.”
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