When bad light forced early stumps on Day 2 of the 1st Test, South Africa had already taken an 11-run lead with five wickets remaining courtesy of Den Elgar’s classy unbeaten 140.
On Wednesday, the Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team endured a tough second day in the first Test against South Africa in Centurion. When bad light forced early stumps, South Africa had already taken an 11-run lead with five wickets remaining courtesy of Den Elgar’s classy unbeaten 140. Before that, KL Rahul’s 101 had taken India to 245, which many experts felt was a decent enough total. The start of India’s bowling was not bad either, as Mohammed Siraj dismissed Aiden Markram cheaply.
But after that, Dean Elgar and Tony de Zorzi stitched together a great stand as South Africa went to lunch at 49/1. After lunch, Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur were given the charge. The two bowled eight overs between them before Jasprit Bumrah was brought on. By then, the score had reached 91/1, with Elgar completing his half-century too.
Former head coach of India, Ravi Shastri, did not like the idea of using Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur right after lunch.
Ravi Shatri, former Indian cricket team coach, said during commentary that, “On any pecking order, these two (Shardul and Prasidh) would have been the last to start the proceedings after lunch.”
He also added, “That’s something that we’ve had a discussion about multiple times when I was the coach. And more often than not, we decided to go with the best two bowlers at the start of the session. If you cast your mind back, India would feel they had missed a massive trick in the first half hour of play. Two bowlers they started with, that tactically was a big mistake.”
