Former India batter Cheteshwar Pujara feels the excuse of transition cannot be seen as the reason behind India losing Test matches at home.
India suffered their fourth loss in six matches at home when they were defeated by South Africa in the first Test in Kolkata, failing to chase 124. The Indian team is in transition with the likes of Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, all of whom were the regular Test players, having retired or (in Rahane's case) not playing Tests for now.
But Pujara, a veteran of 103 Tests, feels the transition should not be an excuse for the losses at home. "I don't buy this that India are losing at home because of transition. I can't digest that," Pujara said on JioStar after India went down to the Proteas by 30 runs.
"If you lose in England or Australia because of transition, it could be acceptable. But this team has the talent and potential. You look at the first-class record of all the players - Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill... Washy [Washington Sundar] batted at No. 3 in this game - all their records are so good. Still, if you lose at home, that means something is wrong," he added.
He then highlighted that had the pitch been better, India could have won, citing that even India A can defeat South Africa. "If you had played the same match on a good wicket, there were much better chances of [India] winning. How do you define Test cricket? On what kind of wicket are your chances better of winning?
"On such tracks, your chances decrease, and the opposition is at par with you. There's so much talent in India, even an India A side could beat South Africa. So if you say this loss is because of transition, it's not acceptable," he said further.
After the loss, India's stand-in captain Rishabh Pant felt India were not able to capitalise on the pressure built on them. "A game like this, you can't dwell on it too much. We should've been able to chase this score. The pressure built on us in the second innings, and we weren't able to capitalise," Pant told the broadcaster after the match.
"Temba and Bosch had a brilliant partnershi,p and that got them back into the game. There was help on the wicket, a score like 120 can be tricky, but as a team we should be able to soak in the pressure and capitalise. Haven't thought about it (improvements?), the match has just finished, will come back strong," he added.
