That's something that we've had a discussion.....' - Former India coach on tactical error made by Team India during 1st Test vs South Africa

The 1st Test between South Africa and India has not been a perfect start for the visitors as the Proteas have secured a lead by the end of day 2. The India bowlers were not looking as threatening as the South Africa bowlers. They were taken apart by Dean Elgar, who has so far played a beautiful innings and is still unbeaten on 140 runs. The India bowlers were visibly struggling with their line and failed to take early wickets to put the batters under pressure. It will be a big challenge for the visitors to get back in the game after a tough couple of days.

Several questions have been raised on the India skipper Rohit Sharma’s tactics as well, after seeing his team fail with the bat in hand, as he could not manage his bowlers well enough to take wickets at regular intervals. Experts and fans had a lot of questions on the fields he set and the way he rotated his bowlers. The duo of Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid, were the reason behind India being the number 1 Test team are now facing criticism from the people who are loyal to them as well.

Ravi Shastri’s criticism

Former India coach Ravi Shastri was also not happy with the plans of Rohit and Dravid after lunch when the South Africa batters gained momentum giving a statement on Star Sports saying “ On any pecking order, these two (Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna) would have been the last to start the proceedings (after lunch)," said Shastri on commentary. The former India all-rounder seemed bemused and a tad irritated by India's tactics. That's something that we've discussed multiple times when I was the coach. And more often than not we decided to go with the best two bowlers at the start of the session."

This statement is an honest opinion from Shastri comparing his plans as India’s coach in the past. Most of the experts also have agreed with this statement as well. There are also some people saying that Prasidh and Shardul bowled after lunch to give bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj some rest after a long spell of bowling. However, with Shardul and Prasidh going for runs there is no doubt that their spell made a lot of difference where the Proteas were able to up their scoring rate and put more pressure on the bowlers.