India didn’t look like willing to play ugly and take body blows: Aakash Chopra

Former opener Aakash Chopra came down heavily on India following their defeat by an innings and 32 runs to South Africa in the first Test, saying the batters gave the look of not willing to play ugly and take blows on the body, while the bowlers looked undercooked to excel.

At SuperSport Park, KL Rahul’s magnificent 101 took India to 245 in the first innings under challenging conditions. With the ball, Bumrah and Siraj did well, but the change bowlers in Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna were ineffective, giving away 194 runs between them in 39 overs for just two wickets.

It meant opener Dean Elgar, playing his final Test match at his home ground, made a majestic 185. Along with fifties from Marco Jansen and David Bedingham, South Africa made 408, thus taking a lead of 163 runs.

India’s second innings ran till 34.1 overs, with eight batters falling for single-digit scores. South Africa’s bowlers, led by Nandre Burger’s four-fer to take his debut match tally to seven scalps, made merry in their home conditions.

Talismanic batter Virat Kohli tried to avoid the ignominy of an innings defeat, scoring a fighting 76 off 82 balls. But with his team-mates falling without giving a fight, his knock wasn’t just enough to delay the inevitable as India were bowled out for 131, and are now 1-0 behind in the two-game series.

“When the third day’s play began, I felt there was a realistic chance of an Indian fightback. But that did not happen. An innings defeat is quite humbling. Except for (KL) Rahul in the first innings and (Virat) Kohli in the second, the others did not look convincing.”

“No one looked like willing to play ugly, take body blows and stick around. Rohit Sharma was out to (Kagiso) Rabada in both innings. Yashasvi Jaiswal is still far from figuring out these conditions. Shreyas Iyer didn’t look good. India needed to bat four-five sessions which did not happen,” said Chopra on JioCinema’s daily sports show ‘#AAKASHVANI’.

Speaking on the difference between the bowling units, where South Africa emerged triumphant, Chopra said, “The South African bowlers stood tall, literally and figuratively. On the Centurion pitch that was quite uneven, their tall bowlers extracted better bounce and movement. Amongst India’s bowlers, barring (Jasprit) Bumrah and (Mohammed) Siraj in patches, no one bowled well.”

“(Ravichandran) Ashwin was restrictive, Shardul (Thakur) was middling and Prasidh Krishna did not leave much of an impression in his first Test. The bowling unit looked rather undercooked. For example, Thakur last played initially in the World Cup, but has not played competitive matches for the last month or two. He looked rusty.”

Young batter Shubman Gill had contrasting dismissals at Centurion – gloving one down leg in the first innings and then playing all around a straighter delivery to be castled in the second innings. Chopra thinks he needs to start getting big runs, while advising him to solve his technical issue in Tests.

“Gill was impressive in the series against Australia when India toured, and looked like a player for the future. He’s batted well in ODIs which is his favourite format and done modestly in T20s. But in Tests, against England, New Zealand, South Africa and West Indies, I don’t think he has performed well. So, there is a question mark. He started off as an opener.”

“Then he batted at No 3. Eventually he wants to bat at No. 4 is what I feel. But he needs to start scoring runs. There’s a slight technical deficiency in his batting, too. He’s a player who likes to play mostly with his hands and does not rely mainly on his feet. So, this approach may suit flat pitches and white ball cricket. But that does not work in Test cricket.”

Chopra signed off by praising Elgar for his gutsy, match-winning knock. “We have not been able to conquer the ‘Final Frontier’ once again. It’s possible that we may still level the series, but a win is out of the question now.”

“We should change the name of the ‘Final Frontier’ to Dean Elgar. If I remember correctly, he was the one who helped South Africa win the Test series the last time round. He was absolutely outstanding in this Test too."