CHENNAI: As Friday dawned in Centurion, with the dust on India’s batting collapse which led to an innings loss to South Africa still settling down, landed a press release from the BCCI. It read, “The Men’s Selection Committee has named Mr Avesh Khan as a replacement for Mr Mohd. Shami for the second Test against South Africa to be played from 3rd-7th January 2024 in Cape Town.”
From the outset, it seemed like a good decision. That the pacer is coming fresh from a five-wicket haul against South Africa A in a four-day match apart, the inclusion of Avesh underlines the bigger concern beneath the inexperience and the fragility of India’s batting display on Thursday. The problem they do not have an immediate answer to — India’s pace attack is not what it was from two years ago, and what more, they do not have the bench strength for anyone to come in and do the job. And it is reflected in Centurion as well.
India’s premier bowlers for the match — Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and R Ashwin — had a decent return but the attack lacked in the fourth and fifth options. For a while now Shardul Thakur has been the anointed fourth pacer who provides a little bit of depth at No. 8 whenever India tours abroad, but things have not been the same. Since the Johannesburg Test in 2022, he has accounted for 99 runs and seven wickets in five matches. And that does not help when you are the third-most experienced pacer and not a backup option.
In Centurion, with Shami not available, Thakur bowled 19 overs, and took one wicket while operating at 5.31 runs per over. Debutant Prasidh Krishna sent down 20 overs while conceding 4.65 runs per over. In contrast, the other three cumulatively took seven wickets while giving away 201 runs in 69.4 overs — summing up what their captain Rohit Sharma said after the match. “This was not a 400-run wicket and we gave too many runs,” he said. “We sprayed the ball all around, but it happens. One can’t depend on one particular bowler (Bumrah), the other three pacers also needed to perform their roles, we could learn from how South Africa bowled,” he added.
Indeed they could, and that is something they would probably be talking about when they take the field at SuperSport Park in Centurion for an optional training session on Saturday morning. What they also would want to talk about is the on-field tactics. While it was not a 400-run pitch as Rohit said, when the bowling attack is such that there are only three experienced options, it is important to use them well so that there is not much breather for the batters. Through South Africa’s innings, Bumrah and Siraj bowled a lot in tandem, and understandably so, but one could go on and say a bit more than they should have. Off the 50.4 overs they cumulatively bowled, 43 were sent down in tandem.
On the other hand, Ashwin, who is supposed to provide control from one end, and he did, operating at 2.15 RPO, largely bowled alongside India’s fourth and fifth bowlers — Thakur and Prasidh. In fact, the only over Ashwin bowled in tandem with Bumrah was his last one in the match. It meant that even if Ashwin was doing a good job at controlling one end, the batters were happy to milk runs off the inconsistent line and length from Thakur and Prasidh.
While the latter, understandably needs to be given some time, the question remains as to how better Rohit, as a captain, could have rotated the bowlers he had in his arsenal. For someone captaining only his third away Test since he was named as captain in early 2022, the 36-year-old has a job cut out for him. His success as skipper in white-ball is a separate chapter, but for now, Rohit will be judged by what he does as a Test captain on the field. And whether it is not clear if Avesh’s inclusion will bring better returns in Cape Town, one thing is they need their captain to make the most of what they have and maintain the intensity on the field when India are on the field.
