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The “final frontier” was touted for India’s
Test series in South Africa, but when a side loses a match in 210 overs,
concerns about their preparation are inevitable. After losing the first Test by
an innings and 32 runs, there was debate over whether India would rather play
an intra-squad match than a formal first-class match or practice match.
However, captain Rohit Sharma categorically rejected the idea, stating that it
is not in the hosts’ best interests to give the opposition the best opportunity.
“We have been playing practice matches for the
last five-six years,” he said. “We have even tried first-class
matches, but we don’t get these kind of wickets in practice matches. It’s
better we prepare on our own, make the pitch we want. When we last went to
Australia, when we came to South Africa in 2018, the ball didn’t bounce above
the knee on those pitches. In the Test, it flies above the head.
“Keeping these things in mind, we decided we
would prepare in our own way. If you get the conditions in practice matches
that you get in [Test] matches, then it is a different matter. But we have seen
on the last three-four tours that we don’t get those conditions in practice
matches. Even the bowlers bowl 120-125kph. We have experienced that in the last
two-three practice matches that we have played on away tours.
While Rohit may have a valid point, during India’s
most recent visit to Australia, they played against Mitchell Swepson and Sean
Abbott, two members of the Test team, on a surface that might be described as
spicy, with scores of 108 and 194 in the opening two innings. During their
first journey to South Africa in four years, India did not even play a practice
match there in 2017–18.
In just 39 overs for two wickets, Shardul Thakur,
playing in his eleventh Test match, and Prasidh Krishna, making his debut,
combined for 194 runs—figures that were well below average under the kind of
conditions that India’s second innings demonstrated. Rohit made the decision to
be kind to them. Most likely as a result of the absence of a magic wand that
can summon other bowlers who will succeed in a week. Naturally, now is the
moment to support them—at least outwardly.
“Look, a little bit inexperience, of course, but
he has got the tools to come out here and play the game,” Rohit said.
“The bowlers that we have back in India, some of them are injured, some of
them are not available. So we try to pick the guys who are available and we see
the conditions that we are coming up against and try to pick the bowlers based
on that. I completely agree that he has not played a lot of cricket, but there
are three guys in their team as well who have not played a lot of cricket; they
came here and showed what it takes.
“Prasidh has been with the Indian team. Not
around the Test team, but he has played a lot of white-ball cricket for us in
the last two or three years, and he has shown that he has got a lot of
potential. Obviously, it didn’t work out well for him playing his first game,
but we all were nervous when we played our first game. He would have been
nervous as well.
“These things happen, but the guy definitely has
the game to excel in this particular format. So we are going to back him
because he definitely has the potential and he has got a great attitude as well
about his game, which probably will hold us in good stead moving forward.”