Former India head coach Ravi Shastri expressed his disappointment after witnessing India’s horrendous batting display on Day 3 of the second Test against South Africa in Guwahati.
India were bowled out for 201. Apart from Yashasvi Jaiswal, no one else managed to pass the fifty-run mark. Kuldeep Yadav faced 134 deliveries — the most by an Indian batter in the innings — on a pitch where the hosts had posted more than 450 in their first innings.
Shastri described India’s performance as “very ordinary” after the batting collapse and questioned the batters’ effort, saying: “This is still a good surface. This is not a pitch to be 142 for 7. Ordinary batting. India won’t be one bit happy. You have to put your hands up and say that’s very ordinary batting.”
His comments came after Shaun Pollock said that the wickets were “soft” and only acceptable “if they had come off some brilliant deliveries”.
Former India opener Abhinav Mukund also raised concerns about India’s Test future.
“Definite question marks about Indian batsmen. India don’t play a Test series at home next year. They have a long time to reassess what to do at Test-match level. This performance against South Africa will definitely hurt,” he said.
India struggled throughout their innings: KL Rahul (22), Sai Sudharsan (15), Dhruv Jurel (0), Rishabh Pant (7), Ravindra Jadeja (6), Nitish Kumar Reddy (10), Jasprit Bumrah (5), and Mohammed Siraj (2) were all unable to withstand the pressure. Washington Sundar emerged as the second-highest run-scorer with 48.
South Africa had the chance to enforce the follow-on but opted to bat again. Aiden Markram and Ryan Rickelton negotiated the tricky phase to end the day with a lead of 314 runs.
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