Every Indian is seething. This is an insult. How can we capitulate so meekly? There wasn’t even a semblance of a fight or a contest.
Once the dust settles, let’s try and decode this. South Africa is one of the toughest places to play cricket. If England has a seam and Australia bounce, South Africa dishes out both, as was apparent at Centurion.
Could we have gone earlier and got used to the conditions? Yes, we could have, maybe had another inter-squad match. But, how do you replicate the pace, bounce and importantly, the accuracy and relentlessness of the attack? There lies the key. And I certainly do not have the answer to this one. I am praying you would.
Bowling machine? For me, it is the closest one can get to the real thing — different lengths at different points in time, rev up the pace, get it from the height of a Jansen or Rabada and on juicy tracks for about seven days, two sessions a day. That would give our batters some feel of what is coming out of the hand and how it would behave off the challenging surface. But this is very repetitive.
Some adapt better than others. It is a very personal trait, one that cannot be embedded. There is a general malaise that we will not be at our best in the first couple of Test matches because the conditions are alien to us and also, how infrequently we come across such times.
The great Sunil Gavaskar would practise against Roger Binny, Madan Lal and the likes and play the West Indian quicks with ease and plunder runs. Binny and Lal were fine bowlers in their time, but pace was not their forte. So how did Gavaskar manage the 20 mph difference in speed, how did he encounter the height of a Joel Garner, the release point being a foot-and-a-half higher than any Indian fast bowler?
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🚨Team India arrives for an optional session in Centurion.
No Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and KL Rahul.@ThumsUpOfficial @CricSubhayan #SAvIND #ViratKohli #KLRahul pic.twitter.com/fQJNsClHa5
— RevSportz (@RevSportz) December 30, 2023
Therein lies greatness and may I also add, the ability to curtail certain shots. That’s where true temperament comes to the fore. In this Test match, Jaiswal, Rohit, Iyer and some of the other Indian batters in the first innings were not out because of the pitch or the juice on the ball. Kohli and Ashwin did. It was India’s first innings batting that left them too far back in the game to be able to get even with South Africa at any point in time.
India’s bowling also left a lot to be desired. Bumrah was superb, Siraj good in spells, but Prasidh and Shardul leaked runs to an extent where Rohit had to get Ashwin into the attack to stem the flow of runs. Ashwin did this to perfection, going at about two runs an over. But by having a spinner bowling from one end, the chances of getting a wicket were compromised on a fast bowlers’ deck.
Bumrah from one end and four-plus runs per over from the other end splits the game wide open. Pressure was never created and runs flowed freely. Once that happens, a bowler’s mindset shifts from taking wickets to saving runs. You are then kissing your chances of getting the batter out goodbye unless he makes a mistake and the South Africans made very few.
The Indian bowlers, barring Bumrah, were a trifle short on this pitch and every time they tried to pitch it further they erred on the fuller side and leaked runs. This forced them to get back to the back of length, which is playing into the hands of the batters. On such decks, batters just love those balls they can play off the back foot. It has pitched, and done what it had to, and there is enough time for me to react to the deviation. Once that length is fuller, and yet not driveable, it is a nightmare for the batters, because you barely have time to adjust to the movement after pitching, that too at such great pace. There was no dearth of effort from the Indians, but the wind seemed to be stronger than the wings.
We did not quite cut the mustard in this Test but not all is lost. How quickly our batters get used to the conditions and the bowlers to the length desired, will be worth a watch and the wait. A lot of the white-ball shots and subcontinent shots will have to be left behind in the dressing room. Rahul did give a master class and enough clues for the others to follow.
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