The need for Indian batting to impose itself in SA quest
India’s pacers, who had a rare off-day, need support from the batters to win a maiden series in SA
KOLKATA: What’s common to seven of India’s nine wins in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries since January 2018? They all came when India bowled last. Of the 12 losses during the same time, six came when India bowled first. Now that is a clear pattern: India’s bowling attack knows how to close matches down. But the batting? Not so much.
This Test at Wanderers—a venue where India had never lost before—was a rare exception as India’s bowling failed to defend 240. In all fairness, anyone can have an off day, and the bowling group had a rare one at Wanderers. But that doesn’t change the bigger point: for four years now, India have won more because of their bowling.
In a way, this Test series has already showcased India’s best and worst in the span of two matches—India won the toss at Centurion, scored 300-plus in the first innings before the fast bowlers swung into action. India again won the toss at Wanderers, but this time neither the batting nor the bowling could make it count. The series has also gone a bit off script given Centurion was the fortress for South Africa and Johannesburg was India’s home away from home. Having ticked all the right boxes in Centurion, India’s batting should have imposed itself more at the Wanderers where the pitch quickened every day. Instead, they folded for 202 in the first innings.
Pulling back the game from there was always going to be difficult, though not impossible. But the Indian batting fell predictably short there as well. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were involved in a 111run stand but neither of them went on to score a hundred and anchor another thwarting partnership. And then Rishabh Pant went for that wild heave against Kagiso Rabada in a phase where four wickets were lost within 29 runs before Shardul Thakur scored a 24-ball 28 to take India past 200. Test matches are often won early in the day and at the Wanderers, India lost the edge in two morning sessions—on Day 3 and Day 1 when Mayank Agarwal, Pujara and Rahane were dismissed by lunch, leaving KL Rahul the task of marshalling the innings. Unlike Centurion, Rahul didn’t progress beyond fifty.
“There could have been phases in the first innings where it was challenging, the ball was tending to kick up a little bit, but we could have probably got maybe 60-70 runs more, it probably could have made a significant difference in this game,” said India head coach Rahul Dravid after the end of the match on Thursday. “So yes, certainly we would like to bat a little bit better, maybe some of the guys who got starts could have converted those into, say, hundreds. That was a difference in the first game—we had Rahul who went on to get a hundred for us and we ended up on the winning side. Second game, they had someone (Dean Elgar) who ended up on 96 at the end of the game and they ended up on the winning side, so it really shows you the importance of, on these kind of wickets especially, one of your batsmen going on and making a big score.”
Batting well in the first innings has been key to India’s best away performances. Of the seven Tests won batting first in SENA countries, India crossed the 250-run mark five times in their first innings—highest being 443/7d at the MCG in December 2018, a match they won by 137 runs—with five 100plus partnerships, four individual centuries and 11 fifties. But in the six losses since 2018 where India batted first, they never crossed 244 in the first innings. The low point was 78 at Headingley in 2021, a match India lost by an innings and 76 runs, the batters scoring just five fifties with only four fifty-plus partnerships across all wickets. The gap is damning for possibly the most talented batting line-up in the world. The bowling has been extremely incisive at times, the conditions too alien some time but if there is one consistent tripping point for India, it’s their frequent inability to consolidate good starts.
In Johannesburg, neither Pujara nor Rahane slowed down and dropped anchor after taking India’s lead past 100. At Centurion, the advantage gained on Day 1 was frittered away when India were all out for 327 from 273/3. After a point, it boils down to personal concentration levels. In the seven-wicket loss in Christchurch in 2020, Prithvi Shaw, Pujara and Hanuma Vihari were dismissed on identical scores—54, 54 and 55—at different junctures of the game as India limped to 242 after being asked to bat. In Adelaide later that year (when India were shot out for 36 in the second innings), Virat Kohli’s run-out (on 74) triggered a collapse from 188/3 to 244 all out.
What may have been hindering India’s cause is the inability of their batters to rein in their natural flair on pitches that mandate a more old-school, black-and-white approach. For a great example of that, look no further than Elgar. Time was never an issue during the second Test, and Elgar could afford to block India’s bowlers knowing as long as he was in the middle, South Africa had the option of inching towards victory. That India barely allowed themselves that alternative to pace their innings couldn’t have been more apparent from the manner of Pant’s dismissal on Day 3, something Dravid has assured will be a talking point in the dressing room.
“No one’s ever going to tell Rishabh not to be a positive player, not to be an aggressive player, but sometimes it’s just a question of picking and choosing the time to do that,” he said. “I think when you just come in, maybe giving yourself a bit more time might be a little bit more advisable. But look, in the end we know what we’re getting with Rishabh—he is a really positive player, he’s someone who can change the course of a game very quickly for us, so you naturally won’t take that away from him and ask him to become something very different.” If the Indian batting needs just that little extra guidance or nudge to fulfil its potential, who better than Dravid to provide it?