CAPE TOWN: While watching the Indians fold like a pack of cards in Cape Town, you may have been telling others around you: “I told you so”.That this Indian team under Virat Kohli wants to dominate abroad is understandable, given the resources they have and have been preparing. But, they did something unthinkable: leaving their most valuable resources out for Newlands.
To get back on track, India need to be more practical with team selection. Two names on the sheet for this clash surprised everyone, including South Africa captain Faf du Plessis. One of them was Rohit Sharma. Kohli picked Rohit ahead of Ajinkya Rahane, a player who is the only batsman in this line-up with centuries in England, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and West Indies.
“We decided to go on current form. Rohit has scored runs in the last three Tests he played in. He was batting well, even in the series against Sri Lanka. He did that similar thing in the past and Shikhar (Dhawan) as well. Look. These things can always be looked at in hindsight. But we decided to go with this combination and current form was definitely the criterion,” said Kohli.Having decided to play six specialist batsmen — a deviation from their past strategy of strengthening batting in bowling friendly conditions — and Rohit being one among them, you would expect the think-tank to pick two of the best openers.
Instead, Shikhar Dhawan looked both reckless and clueless. If form was a criterion for selection, then KL Rahul too had been among runs. Unlike Dhawan, he doesn’t fishing around the off-stump channel or go for shots not in his repertoire.The conditions in Centurion and Johannesburg are only going to get more challenging. Unlike for the rest, the hosts’ attack didn’t even use the corridor of uncertainty to test Dhawan.
They chose to bounce him out, and he fell into the trap with both eyes open. While deciding to go with Dhawan, India believed a left-right combination may make life difficult for South Africa, but it only made life difficult for their middle-order, which was exposed to the new ball way too early.“Well, the left-hander always helps. That’s what we felt. It’s difficult for bowlers to set lines and lengths. It has worked for us in the recent past. It’s something that a lot of international sides want to go with these days, because you don’t want bowlers to settle, especially with the new ball. We have to try and create plans that we feel will not let the opposition gain momentum early on. That was the idea behind (playing Dhawan).”Cape Town ended up as a misadventure for India. If they don’t utilise their resources well in Centurion, then they are staring at the tag ‘Lions at home, lambs abroad’.