Indian batters didn’t look willing to play ugly and take body blows: Aakash Chopra

Hosting JioCinema’s daily sports show ‘#AAKASHVANI’, Aakash Chopra spoke about India’s loss to South Africa in the first Test at Centurion and analysed the performances of both teams. Excerpts: 

On Dean Elgar’s performance 

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. 

On India’s approach in the Test 

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. 

On the difference between the bowling units 

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. 

On Shubman Gill’s struggles 

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.