Former India cricketer Venkatesh Prasad is not at all pleased with the Indian team's performance in Test cricket. He has slammed the management and the players after their 0-2 series loss to South Africa. In fact, India never seemed to be in the game in the Guwahati Test after losing the toss and suffered their biggest defeat in terms of runs in the longest format of the sport.
Prasad pointed out the tactical errors made during the series and also called out India's obsession with playing all-rounders. He also termed the whitewash at the hands of South Africa as embarrassing while also stating that the selection calls have also been poor. Prasad noted that the Test team selection should be purely made based on the performance in Ranji Trophy and not in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
"We cannot hide under the garb of transition. Barring Sudarshan, Jurel and Reddy, most of the guys have been around for 7-8 years. Some very experienced campaigners. This is a series of tactical errors, obsession with playing all-rounders and not wanting to learn from mistakes. Embarrassing. Really disappointed by how India is going about in Test cricket. The all-rounder obsession is absolute brain-fade, especially when you don’t bowl them.
"Rank Poor tactics, poor skills, poor body language and an unprecedented 2 series white wash at home. Hope this does not get washed off with Test matches 9 months away and this negative approach changes. Need to play specialists and players need to be picked on the basis of Ranji, Duleep Trophy in domestic cricket. Can pick in 50 overs based on IPL performance, but for Test cricket, Ranji and Duleep trophy have to be the barometer.
"Yash Rathod, Shubham Sharma, Baba Indrajith, Smaran Ravichandran are names most wouldn’t have heard off as they don’t play IPL, but consistently score runs in domestic cricket. Can’t play sub-40 FC avg players in the Test team based on IPL performances. Playing all rounder in Indian conditions because he can bat is not the correct approach in Test cricket. Test Cricket needs specialists. We all love Indian cricket and it’s sad to see what’s happening over the last year and a half just to somehow prove this flawed strategy right. Can’t function on such egos in the interest of Indian cricket, Truly disappointing," Prasad wrote in a series of tweets.
What happened on the final day of Guwahati Test?
When the final day of the second Test started, India had only eight wickets in hand and needed 522 runs for an unlikely win. They had a chance to draw the game but they couldn't with only Ravindra Jadeja putting up a fight, scoring a half-century. Even then, India were skittled for just 140 runs as they lost the Test match by 408 runs.
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