CAPE TOWN: In a practice contrary to norm, the Indian team had a team-bonding party on Monday evening, hours after defeat in the first Test against South Africa in Cape Town. While it is common for them to have parties after wins, the idea behind Monday was to keep the team’s morale high.
It is understood that the team had a lengthy meeting at the Newlands ground soon after the presentation ceremony, as the hosts partied hard in the neighbouring dressing room. The nearly hour-long meeting saw discussions on what went wrong, especially batting.
Like in Galle in 2015, history repeated itself with the coaching staff — headed by Ravi Shastri — asking players to have a fresh approach for the rest of the series.
“You could see it hurt a lot of them and it was not a great sight to see them down. So we called for a similar meeting like Galle, where we concentrated more about Centurion and Johannesburg. This Test could have gone either way, and that is what hurt them the most,” a source told Express.
Soon after reaching the hotel, the management threw a surprise party, which left the players surprised. “They have never had one even when they were winning a lot. In times like these, it is important to tell them nothing has changed.”
On Tuesday, the team had optional training with KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma, and Parthiv Patel hitting the nets as India already seemed to be exploring options for the second Test. The rest took a day off. They depart for Johannesburg on Wednesday, where they will be based for the remainder of the Tests. The team will travel to Centurion via road everyday.
For Centurion, the management could make at least two changes. KL Rahul is most likely to get a look-in, although they still have options for who he will replace. With Kohli revealing preference for a left-hander at the top, Shikhar Dhawan could retain his spot.
The other possible change could be Ajinkya Rahane for Rohit Sharma, but that looks like a distant possibility since one failure is too less a sample size. With regards to Ishant Sharma, the team might assess in Centurion as it is likely to have more bounce than Newlands.
The other surprise could be that of Parthiv Patel ahead of Wridhhiman Saha. The latter can double up as a southpaw replacement for Dhawan, if the latter is benched.
Rabada tops ICC rankings
DUBAI: South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada became the No 1 bowler in the ICC Test rankings on Tuesday after his spells of 3/34 and 2/41 against India in Cape Town. He had replaced England’s James Anderson. Rabada, 22, earned five points for that performance, taking him past Anderson’s tally of 887 by one point.