India is too much dependent on Virat Kohli according to Faf du Plessis

South Africa thumped India in the second Test in Centurion by 135 runs and also won the series with one match to go in Johannesburg. The hosts were excellent in all the departments and outplayed their opposition comfortably. The visitors though had equal opportunities to win both the Test matches but failed to cash in the key moments of the game. In the end, the world number 1 side lost the matches as they also relied too much on their skipper Virat Kohli with the bat.

Kohli went on to score 49.84 percent of the first innings total India posted in response to South Africa’s 335 in Centurion. It was his superb knock of 153 runs which kept the team in the game despite losing wickets at regular intervals. The other batsmen completely lacked the application required on the bouncy pitches in South Africa which led to the dismal performance from the team.

Du Plessis points out the weakness

South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis pointed out the weakness in Team India by saying that they are overly reliant on Virat Kohli. He was delighted with the way his teammates put their hands up whenever the Indian bowlers managed to put them under pressure. “India are too reliant on Kohli to score runs,” he said during the post-match press conference on Wednesday.

“Everyone has chipped in (from South Africa’s perspective). AB de Villiers has scored runs, Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, I’ve scored runs. Everyone has chipped in. We feel as an opposition that India is very reliant on Virat to score runs. So that’s the difference,” du Plessis added.

The third and final Test will be played at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on January 24 where the pitch will once again be like Newlands. The hosts would love to complete a series whitewash over the visitors who faced a similar fate during their last tour to India in 2015. Virat Kohli led side, however, would believe that they can counter the tough challenge in front of them. They would be keen to put up a strong show and win the last Test to avoid yet another whitewash in an away series.

Keep following CricTracker for more updates on SAvIND series