The cricketing legend and former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes that Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have justified their place in the team with their comeback knocks in the second innings of the Johannesburg Test against South Africa.
Under fire Pujara and Rahane were going through a patchy phase with the will which continued till the first innings of the second Test match at Wanderers. But Pujara's 53 off 86 and Rahane's 58 off 78 somehow gave them the redemption. Gavaskar feels Indian team should stick with Pujara and Rahane due to what they have done in the past.
"The team has backed them because of the experience and what they have done in the past. They had the belief that they will come good and they did," Gavaskar told Star Sports.
"Sometimes we can be a little bit hard on some of our senior players because you have these exciting young players waiting in the wings and we all want to see them get a bit of exposure," he added.
India made 202 runs in the first innings, KL Rahul scored a half-century and the Indian middle-order again failed to score runs. Shardul Thakur picked a seven-fer to restrict South Africa to 229 runs in their first innings and the Proteas could take only a lead of 20 runs. In India’s second innings Pujara and Rahane stitched a partnership of 111 runs for the third wicket. Both the veterans scored a half-century each.
India was without the services of regular skipper Virat Kohli who was ruled out of the second Test due to a lower back spasm.
"It is amazing, this is the first time that India have lost a Test match in which Virat Kohli has not played. They drew once in Sydney but otherwise they have always won.
Meanwhile, South Africa levelled the series against India after winning the Johannesburg Test by seven wickets due to the batting efforts by Dean Elgar. Elgar made 96 runs off 188 balls and won the player of the match award for this performance. Both the teams will now move to Cape Town to play the third and the final Test starting on January 11.
