With 136 runs required to win from 120 balls and seven wickets in hand, and with Virat Kohli at the crease, you would expect India to cruise comfortably to victory in an ODI. More so because Kohli is free of the captaincy burdens and can bat freely without any worries in the world.
The stage was perfect for the 33-year-old owner of 70 international centuries including 43 from ODIs to pull off what the Virat Kohli of the past used to. Often in the past, in his pre-captaincy days, has Kohli taken India to victories in ODIs with match-winning hundreds, calculating the run chase brilliantly. Of course, he had Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the side then.
But, now, with all those years of experience behind him and as the senior pro in the team, Kohli was best placed to do that again in the third and final ODI in Cape Town on Sunday. But, after making yet another fifty, Kohli fell to left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj, done in by the extra bounce and turn.
IND vs SA: High Time For India to Reset Their ODI Template?
And with him fell the rest of the Indian players, though they came agonisingly close to losing by four runs and the three-match ODI series 0-3.
It was a tour that India should have won, both in the Tests and ODIs. They failed to cash in on the 1-0 lead in Tests and the bowlers failed to drive home the advantage in the second and third Tests, in Johannesburg and Cape Town. And, in the ODIs, on good batting surfaces, they failed to chase in two and defend in one.
The batsmen struggled against their spinners, and treated part-time off-spinner Aiden Markram with so much respect rather than hitting him out of the attack.
While the 1-2 defeat in the Test series hurt badly, the ODI loss was nothing but adding more salt to the injury. One cannot point out the absence of Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja, two stalwarts in the limited-overs format, for the loss. Yes, their absence was felt but this was the best opportunity to test the bench strength and support the often-quoted statements that India’s bench strength is as good as the first-choice players.
It may be the inexperienced KL Rahul’s first taste as international captain, albeit in a stand-in capacity because the newly-appointed limited-overs captain, Rohit Sharma, did not recover from the hamstring injury. And, Rahul will step aside once Sharma comes back fully fit. But, this was an opportunity for Rahul to prove his leadership skills, learn from Kohli and other seniors and also from, who better than, chief coach Rahul Dravid.
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The Indian team will do well to learn from the mistakes committed in South Africa and build a strong squad, identify the roles of the players and give them more time to settle down if they are to become a serious contender in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup to be held in India.
Former India opening batsman and now coach, Arun Lal, said that the ODI series loss is an “eye-opener” for the Indian team.
Lal told news18.com on Monday: “I thought we would prevail over South Africa. We have the power and the names, the established cricketers in the side. It is an eye-opener for us. You may be whoever you are in world cricket but still, you have to play well to win a game of cricket.”
While Lal, 66 years and current coach of the Bengal team, agreed that the Kohli of yore is missing nowadays, he said that one cannot sustain perpetually.
Lal, who played for India between 1982 and 1989 and also had a stint as a television commentator, said: “It is for all to see. There is no guarantee in cricket. The high standards that Kohli has set of getting those hundreds chasing is unsustainable. That is the definition of cricket. That cannot be sustained perpetually. One cannot expect him to score hundreds and chase every time. Even Tendulkar got his 100 international hundreds in nearly 800 innings. By the definition of cricket, it is unsustainable, whoever you are. It is not just about Kohli but also the 10 others who play with him.”
Lal said that Indian cricket is still “very strong”. He said: “You cannot judge cricket by the trophies won. Saying Indian cricket has not won a trophy in 10-11 years, it does not make the Indian team bad. India may not have won trophies but has always been a contender.
“From India’s perspective, it is a bliss. You still have a fantastic team. You have a great reserve bench. The guys sitting out are as good as the guys who are playing. They are pushing for places. Already there is a clamour to replace a few players in the Test side, which is not a bad thing. You cannot have the same people playing perpetually. One loss and you start complaining. That is the nature of it all. After a while, you do want to see younger guys coming. Sometimes it goes overboard. We have very short memories and things like that. Sanity is there. You have the selection committee.
“I think Indian cricket is doing very well. There will be ups and downs. And, Kohli cannot be there in perpetuity. Even Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, MS Dhoni could not be. I don’t see it as a downside in Indian cricket. Who imagined Kohli to dominate after Tendulkar. Suddenly, Tendulkar is forgotten. So will Kohli be. I see it as a natural progression.”
Also Read: This Indian Team is in Transition, But the Building Blocks Are There
Another former India batsman and now an analyst who puts things into perspective through his YouTube channel when not commentating in Kannada sports channel, Vijay Bharadwaj, was deeply hurt at the way India lost both the series.
Bharadwaj said: “The tour was lost in the second Test at The Wanderers. The wicket offered some help for the bowlers, and it was expected of the team that boasted of the world’s best attack to defend 239. They picked up only three wickets in the second innings. And, I am not pointing out KL Rahul’s inexperience (as captain, standing in for Kohli due to back spasms for the regular Test captain) but about the whole bowling attack. The wicket was such that the ball kicked up from length and you fancied your chances of leading 2-0 in the series. But, you could not bowl out an inexperienced South African batting. Some of the field placings in that SA run chase were ordinary. That’s where they lost, and the momentum was lost in the third Test, which offered a better pitch and the Indian team threw it away.”
Bharadwaj, a right-handed batsman and off-spinner who played for the country in the early 2000s, said: “This team was under pressure. They were at two extremities of confidence, either overconfident or lacked confidence. South Africa showed the responsibility to pull it off while the Indian team showed some irresponsibility.”
Looking deeply into the series that just went by, some of the individual irresponsible acts in the series included Rishabh Pant’s shots, both in Tests and ODIs. And, Pant gets away with such irresponsible acts with even the team management backing him by saying, “that is how he plays”. But this act of throwing it away, especially when given the responsibility of batting at No. 4 in the ODIs and having plenty of overs to guide the team through, is not a good sign for Indian cricket.
Also, Pant’s keeping has been a contentious topic for discussion. He may have reached 100 Test dismissals in quick time, quicker than even MS Dhoni, but there is still a lot left to be desired as far as his wicketkeeping is concerned. His failure to catch at crucial times or effect a stumping is costing Team India dear.
Bharadwaj said that Kohli needs a little time to settle down after being stripped of ODI captaincy. “His body language did not seem okay in the ODI series. We need to give him time to settle down. We can’t expect the Kohli of 2014 immediately. It will take time.”
The Karnataka run-machine of the 1990s and 2000s, Bharadwaj, agreed that the Indian batsmen gave too much respect to Markram. “He cannot go for 15 runs in five overs and take a wicket. Is he Shane Warne, Anil Kumble or Muttiah Muralitharan?” said Bharadwaj.
Bharadwaj said the Indian batsmen played one irresponsible shot too many in the ODIs. “Deepak Chahar had the best chance to turn into a hero on Sunday. Having come so close, he got out to a rush of blood. You may say that the regular batsmen did not get runs and Chahar did. But here is where you become a hero, taking the team to victory after coming so close,” Bharadwaj said.
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