India’s stand-in captain Rishabh Pant didn’t hold back his frustration as he reflected on his team’s disastrous performance following the crushing 408-run defeat to South Africa in Guwahati. The loss gave South Africa their first-ever Test series win in India, a historic victory after 25 years. Pant, who had taken up the leadership mantle after Shubman Gill was ruled out during the Kolkata Test due to a neck injury, was forthright in his analysis. Without resorting to excuses, he identified some very serious problems that have been dogging the Indian team.
Without singling out individual players, Pant’s remarks were as much an indictment of the collective failure of his team. This loss was India’s heaviest on home soil, beating the previous 342-run defeat against Australia in 2004. More disturbingly for India, this is their fifth loss in the last one year, highlighting the extent of the problem.
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South Africa’s win came after a 25-year-long wait and marked their first-ever Test series win in India, while India have now lost their third series clean sweep at home, including the 0-3 whitewash dealt out by New Zealand last October.
“It’s a little disappointing. As a team, we need to get better. Credit to the opposition for playing better than us. They dominated the series, but at the same time you can’t take cricket for granted. We’re playing at home, and sometimes we were up in the game. Still, we didn’t capitalise on it, so we have to learn and get better.”
“Whether you’re playing at home or away, cricket demands that determination and that extra effort. As a batting unit, you need to capitalise on certain moments. As a team, we didn’t do that. The positives from this series will be to focus on our own plan,” Rishabh Pant said after the match.
