INDIA’S 10 MISTAKES IN SOUTH AFRICA

1 PULLING OUT OF WARMUP MATCH

You just can’t land in South Africa and declare that practising among yourselves is better than playing a warm-up match against a team of unknowns. This team was so confident it felt it didn’t need any practice match, not even to get combinations sorted.

2 SIDELINING AJINKYA RAHANE

Forget South Africa, you shouldn’t drop Ajinkya Rahane even in a warm-up match. India captain Virat Kohli said he knows Rahane, his deputy, has the best average outside Asia and yet he went with Rohit Sharma on current form -- he hit centuries on docile home pitches against a depleted Sri Lanka. Massive blunder.

3 PERSISTING WITH ROHIT

Here is where it got worse. A match is half won if you bat well in the first innings. But Rohit Sharma, bred on featherbed pitches in India, couldn’t move his feet quick enough to tackle Kagiso Rabada’s pace at Centurion. He should have been dropped after Cape Town, but the skipper of course had other ideas.

4 RAHULDHAWAN CONUNDRUM

Shikhar Dhawan is terrific at home. KL Rahul is a technically better batsman. Who do you pick for a seaming pitch in Cape Town? This Indian team management is driven by a logic and reasoning that sometimes is hard to understand. Once Dhawan didn’t fire in Cape Town, they dropped him on a pitch where he could have given a good start.

5 ONE BOWLER TOO MANY

Assistant coach Sanjay Bangar said India would pick a fourth bowler if the Newlands pitch was batsmen-friendly, but add a sixth batsman if it was a seaming track. In the end, India went with four specialist bowlers and Hardik Pandya on seaming pitch. Ashwin bowled just 8 overs.

6 WHERE IS THE NIGHTWATCHMAN?

With 11 overs left for stumps on the first day on a pitch that was making the batsmen dance, the India team management didn’t send a nightwatchman after the openers fell. It happened in Cape Town and in Centurion. What good does it do to the side when you lose Virat Kohli so early? Sending Parthiv Patel to shield Rohit Sharma on the fourth evening also sent a wrong message.

7 READING THE PITCH WRONG

Proteas skipper Faf du Plessis, who plays domestic cricket for the Titans at Centurion, was concerned with the burnt grass at one end of the pitch. But Virat Kohli said he expected the pitch to be lively. Who do you believe? And what does that tell about the pitch reading ability of this India team?

8 DROPPING BHUVI AFTER HEROICS

Another wrong message is sent to the team when you drop your best bowler from the previous Test only because you feel the Centurion pitch won’t suit him. Restricting Bhuvneshwar Kumar like this is preventing him from showing he may not be a one-trick pony. And one should not forget his batting ability.

9 ONE SPINNER WHERE THEY SHOULD HAVE PLAYED TWO

R Ashwin looked a lone warrior while bowling 68.2 overs, the highest among all India bowlers, at Centurion. This was a pitch that would have made Ravindra Jadeja’s eyes light up. But India went with the routine one spinner, one allrounder and three pacers, consigning Jadeja, who has three Ranji Trophy triple centuries, to jogging around the field during breaks.

10 PULLING SHAMI OUT WHEN ON A ROLL

You don’t pull your pace spearhead out of the attack when he has dismissed AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock and has South Africa on the mat at 163/5. Kohli brought in Hardik Pandya and Ishant Sharma, allowing South Africa to resurrect their innings and reach 258 in the end.