India’s Test frailties exposed again in Centurion drubbing

India’s innings defeat to South Africa at Centurion inside three days has widened the chasm between Rohit Sharma’s team and the other contenders for the 2023-2025 World Test Championship and raised further questions about this unit’s abilities to compete in testing conditions. To be smashed by an innings and 32 runs in a three-day Test match hit by rain is an embarrassment, and serious introspection must be done by the Indian cricket’s stakeholders as to what the roadmap for the next two years is.

One common factor across the previous eight Test tours by Indian cricket teams to South Africa was a collective batting failure. In 17 Test innings on South African soil dating back to the two-match series of 2013, only six times had Indian teams reached 250. And so, when this team folded for just 245 in its first innings of the Centurion Test, the writing was on the wall.

Sure, KL Rahul’s comeback innings was terrific; a stroke-filled 101 out of a total of 245, but 245 does not win you Test matches in South Africa. It does not inspire confidence for the bowlers, and when those bowlers, as a unit, fail to make the best of seaming conditions, you end up chasing the game even more.

India’s downfall in this Test was in full motion 53 minutes into the opening day’s play when Shubman Gill’s exit left the score at 24/3. Rohit was out, once again, hooking to a perfectly placed fielder at long leg. Yashaswi Jaiswal drove hard and without footwork. Gill was caught down the legside when a DRS review showed he had gloved it, and the debutant pacer Nandre Burger had two wickets in two in two overs.

And yet, aside from Kagiso Rabada who was brilliant whenever his captain tossed him the cricket ball, collectively South Africa did not bowl anywhere near to as good as you expected them to. Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee and Burger veered too much on the pads and sprayed plenty of deliveries well wide of off stump. Shreyas Iyer was put down on 4 by Jansen at point off Rabada. In the next over, Kohli clipped a ball off the pads from Burger and was dropped by Tony de Zorsi at square leg. And still, India failed to get to 250. Game over, no matter how poorly India fared with the ball.

From there onwards, it was a matter of how many South Africa would get, and how long it would take them to beat India.

India’s bowling, barring Jasprit Bumrah and two spells from Mohammed Siraj, was average. Shardul Thakur – who two years ago claimed the best figures by an Indian bowler in South Africa – struggled for impact and the debutant Prasidh Krishna looked lackluster. Ravichandran Ashwin, only playing because Ravindra Jadeja complained of back spasms before the toss, had very little to do but contain runs on that Centurion pitch. He wasn’t helped by a dropped catch by Rahul when Jansen was on 26.

Bumrah, in his first Test in over a year, strived hard as you expect from a champion bowler. Siraj had some tremendous overs in which he got bounce and seam movement, but by his own high standards he was erratic. The less said about Shardul and Krishna the better. Why Rohit went straight to his two weakest bowlers immediately after lunch on two days was a head-scratcher.

India were listless with bat and ball, across three days. After making just 245, they conceded 145 in the final session of day two which ended with South Africa 11 runs ahead for the loss of five wickets thanks chiefly to Dean Elgar’s 140*. On the third morning, they were even flatter in the field. One chance was created by Ashwin but it was spilled by Rahul, and the wicket of Elgar for 185 came from a very poor delivery from Shardul. Thanks to Elgar and Jansen, a lead of 163 was secured by South Africa and India had been firmly shut out of the Test match.

Their second innings spanned just 34.1 overs, the result being a total of 131. Only Gill (26) and Kohli (76) made it to double digits. As witnessed during the 2018 and 2021 tours to South Africa, the batting did not stand up as a whole.

Rohit was out without scoring, cleaned up by a lovely delivery from India’s tormentor from day one, Rabada. Jaiswas was bounced out. Gill – his Test career nosediving – played a shot unbecoming of a Test No 3 in these conditions. Iyer was, for the second time in the match, a sitting duck. The rest came and went, with only Kohli showing some appetite for a fight.

And so, for the ninth tour to South Africa in a row, an Indian team will depart without a Test series win. Change is required, but the question is: who is brave enough to make them?