Former South African captain Shaun Pollock has advised India to find two batters who can play like former number three batter Cheteshwar Pujara. Team India suffered a 2-0 series loss against South Africa after they were obliterated by 408 runs at Guwahati.
The main reason behind India’s humiliating loss was the batting unit. India could not cross the 250-run mark once in the series. India returned with scores of 189 and 93 on a difficult track in Kolkata, whereas they were bundled out after scoring 201 and 140 in Guwahati.
Meanwhile, Pujara was known for his solid batting at one drop and he was able to take Rahul Dravid’s legacy forward. But since Pujara’s retirement, India’s hunt for a stable number three has not ended.
While Washington Sundar batted at one drop in the opening Test match at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, Sai Sudharsan batted at one down in the second game of the series.
Sundar returned with scores of 29 and 31 on a difficult track in Kolkata, Sudharsan returned with scores of 14 and 15 in Guwahati.
Pollock said on Cricbuzz, “It’s a trend in world cricket that Test match batting is not that easy. Because now people don’t play much four-day or first-class cricket, the art of batting in Tests is lost. So my only suggestion to India is to find two batters who aren’t T20 guys. Guys that play a bit like Pujara, where he wasn’t really considered in any IPL teams. And develop two of those guys so you have a solid technical backbone in the batting department so you can rely on those guys for 5-10 years to come.”
“The selectors have to identify tempratent and technique. There are certain techniques that have to be good enough to survive in Test cricket. In and around that, you can have your Pants, Jaiswals, who play the T20 stuff but come back and still play Test cricket and add the flair and flamboyance.”
India hasn’t been able to tick the right boxes with the bat. Only two Indian batters crossed 100 runs in the two-match series against South Africa.
India and South Africa will now take on each other in a three-match ODI series.
