India’s team combination in the opening Test match had come under heavy criticism after India lost the first Test match of three-match series to South Africa by 72 runs.
Currently, Proteas are dominating the series with 1-0 and if Virat’s side wants to be the first one to win a Test series in South Africa, they need to plan a strategy to win the remaining matches.
Virat Kohli was slammed for opting Rohit Sharma and benching Ajinkya Rahane in Newlands. There was also discussion that KL Rahul should be back in the playing eleven and India need to play only four bowlers.
However, former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly beg to differ and believes that Virat should have faith in his current batting line up. While writing in a column for TOI, Ganguly suggested that Virat should go with the first Test squad in Centurion.
“Virat Kohli should not worry about such things [team combination],” Ganguly said.
“Although KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane have a good history of scoring runs away from the sub-continent and have better records as batsmen, India can’t just chop-and-change in every game. They have shown faith in the current batting and that should continue in the next Test as well. They still have two more Tests to play and I feel all the matches will produce results,” Ganguly added.
The veteran Indian cricketer also believes that going with five bowlers was the right thing.
“There has been a lot of talk about the combination. India did the right thing by going in with five bowlers. As much as scoring runs is important in a bid to win Test matches, getting wickets is also key. The reason why we were thinking of an Indian win at some point is because the bowlers got 20 wickets and that will continue to be an important criterion over the next two Tests,” Ganguly wrote.