Virat Kohli-led India were off to a winning start in the South Africa tour as they clinched the first Test match in Centurion. But they failed to carry the winning momentum going forward in the series which resulted in a second match draw and a seven-wicket loss in the third and the final match of the series. Proteas, who were inexperienced and comparatively weaker side on paper, made the visitors bite dust by overcoming all the odds.
After winning the first Test, it seemed that this time Indian team would easily beat South Africa in the foreign land and put a halt to the 29-year drought of not winning a Test series in the Rainbow Nation. But nothing remotely happened as India kept on making mistakes and let the Dean Elgar-side come back from behind and capture the series 2-1. Let's have a look at the five main reasons that led to the Men in Blue's defeat :
Middle-order debacle
India's batting constantly faltered during the entire series while the inexperienced South Africa's batters boldly faced the highly touted Indian bowlers. But India's senior batters, who are loaded with experience, appeared helpless while facing the South African bowlers. The top-two names that remained the villain of the middle-order collapse were Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, who despite regarded as the 'Mr Dependables' couldn't click which left the Indian batting line-up in lurch. Their collective failure cost India so heavily as they continued their bad patch. If we look at the batting figures of the two batters in the three Test matches, Pujara scored just 124 runs in six innings at an average of 20.6 while Rahane could only manage to amass 136 in as many innings at an average of 22.6 which was surely not expected by the stature of batters they are. This remained the perennial weakness in the Indian batting line-up which resulted in a Test series loss.
Ineffective bowling on a helpful pitch
The fast pitches of South Africa are called heaven for bowlers and South African bowlers made the most of it. For Proteas, bowlers like Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Duanne Olivier and Marco Jansen wreaked havoc on their home pitches in comparison to the Indian pacers. Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj, who have proved their bowling prowess over the time, put up some great performances but it was not enough to save India from blushes. On the other hand, South African bowlers took 60 wickets with their strategical bowling to unsettle Indian batters. Where Indian fast bowlers mostly relied on swing and seam which proved to be ineffective during the second innings of the second Test match in Johannesburg and also in Cape Town. This was also one of the main reasons why India had to bite dust in the Test series.
Failed to capitalise on the opportunity to take lead in the match
Virat and Co. couldn't take advantage whenever they got the opportunity to take lead in the match.
After winning the first match in Centurion, Team India had a chance to take lead in both the matches but their batters failed in both the Test matches. In the Johannesburg Test match, when Rahane and Pujara shared a 111-run partnership, India lost four of their lower-order batters in a span of 29. Then, Rishabh Pant had to bat but he kept going in the process of hitting the big shot and India failed to get a big lead. Something similar was seen in Cape Town, when Pant was batting well on one side, and captain Kohli was on crease with 29 runs on the other. But as soon as Kohli got out, Team India's batters collapsed like a stack of cards. Due to which they couldn't score a big runs and the target of 212 runs was easily overhauled by South Africa. Consequently, India had to face defeat again.
India underestimated the inexperienced SA side
Before the start of this Test series, all the cricket pundits were calling South Africa a weaker side in comparison to the star studded India, because apart from the bowlers in their team, there were inexperienced batters like Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen in the batting line-up. And the further dent was in the name of Quinton de Kock, who announced his Test retirement just after the Centurion Test. But these batters, who looked inexperienced on paper, played firmly and made a strong comeback while taking lessons from their first Test defeat. Keegan batted brilliantly in the series and played useful innings when the team needed his the most to put South Africa ahead which spurred South Africa and they kept moving forward in the series.
The blunder of underestimating the South African side also cost India the Test series.
Is the dispute outside the team affecting India's performance?
There was a lot of turmoil in Indian cricket before the South Africa tour. While the ODI captaincy was snatched from Virat Kohli, the palpable battle between BCCI & Virat Kohli also took toll on the team's performance. In the press conference before leaving for South Africa, Kohli said that he was not asked by any board member to rethink his decision of stepping down from T20 captaincy. Rather, just a call came and the ODI captaincy was taken from him. Beside this, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly had said that he had asked Kohli to step down from T20 captaincy. But nothing like this happened. While selector Chetan Sharma also emphasised on the same point. After this, Kohli did not appear for the press conference for several days and he did not answer any such question before the third Test match. The aftereffects of all the turmoil going on outside might have also took a toll on the Indian side's performance.
