By: Drcricket7 Staff
Probably, after 11 years of Test cricket, Team India went into the third Test match against South Africa in Nagpur with just one pacer in Ishant Sharma (in the playing XI).
In 2004 November, they had played a Test match with a similar combination. It was a Test against Australia in Mumbai, where the only pacer in the team then was Zaheer Khan.
Since then, a lot of water has flown under the bridge but the thought process of Indian cricket hasn’t changed much.
The current team management, which is praised in all quarters for its aggressive intent, doesn’t mind adopting the age-old tactics of spinning the opposition out on home turf.
This is what we call the home advantage. In the end, the move to induct one extra batsman in Rohit Sharma didn’t pay much. He only scored two runs from 28 deliveries.
At the top, Murali Vijay, who has doing the bulk of the scoring, made a 40 without much of a contribution of his partner Shikhar Dhawan. In the middle-order, both Cheteshwar Pujara and Kohli got out after doing the initial hard work.
While in the lower middle-order, both Ravindra Jadeja and Wriddhiman Saha made his felt. But all put together, India couldn’t make full use of winning the toss early on and batting on a fresh pit h first.
Like they batted in the opening Test match in Mohali, Virat Kohli’s did show a plenty of promise to deliver, but they couldn’t make much to the grand total. Not even with an extra-batsman.
But last time, they played with a similar combo, India had won that Test against Australia and the unlikely hero of the match was left-arm Murali Karthik. Who will be the game-changer of his match? Wait and watch to know the answer!
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