Rohit Sharma struggles with early decisions as Team India fights for a comeback. After a poor performance in the 1st Test against South Africa at Centurion, Rohit Sharma-led Team India will be looking to make a comeback and draw the Test series with a win in the second Test match. Indian captain Rohit Sharma has faced several problems ahead of the second Test as the team needs some changes in bowling and re-technique their batting style. India lost the first Test by an innings and 32 runs as the Indian batsmen failed to hold their ground on Centurion’s bouncy pitch, with the pacers unable to produce their best spell against the expert South African batsmen Dean Elgar 185 Who put up a strong partnership for South Africa and tighten the team on day 2.
In the second test, Indian all rounder Ravindra Jadeja is poised to make a come back. In the most recent game his absence was keenly felt as Ravichandran Ashwin did not give much spin on the Centurion’s surface and did not contribute much with the bat either. Jadeja is expected to start in place of Ravichandran Ashwin in the playing XI for the second Test, as Rohit Sharma is likely to hold him out.
The Centurion pitch is renowned as a pacer’s heaven and South African pacer Kagiso Rabada and Nandre Burger exploited this to their advantage to destroy the Indian batsmen. India’s pace contingent consisted of Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah . It was easy to see how inconsistent Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishan laked the experience required for test bowling. Rohit Sharma will have to decide whether to go with the less experienced test cricketers , Mukesh Kumar and Avesh khan in place of the youthful pacers . The unpredictable nature of the new bowlers could prove to be a disadvantage for the South African hitters.
India’s opening trio of Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill need to be rearranged as well because they performed poorly against the ferocious pacers from South Africa. Although KL Rahul and Virat Kohli demonstrated some strength in the middle order, the team’s late hitter batsmen did not put up much of an effort. In the event that Ravindra Jadeja makes come back to the playing eleven , our middle order batsmen should improve significantly. The batting depth India desires will also influence Rohit Sharma’s choice to replace Shardul Thakur who has demonstrated some performance with the bat but was not particularly effective in the opening test match.
