India skipper Rohit Sharma was unsparing of his batters' efforts in the first Test at Centurion.
Credit: PTI Photo
Centurion: Rohit Sharma was literally red-faced when he entered the post-match press conference on Thursday.
He and his team had been on the receiving end of a walloping, the kinds of which they will remember for some time to come.
Moreover, this innings and 32-run loss at the hands of South Africa at the SuperSport Park in Centurion wasn’t about how well the hosts had done. This was almost entirely about how poorly India had played.
At first, it was the bowling. Save for Jasprit Bumrah, India didn’t look like they would pick up wickets.
"This was not a 400-run wicket and we gave too many runs,” said Rohit. “We sprayed the ball all around, but it happens. One can’t depend on one particular bowler (Bumrah), the other three pacers also needed to perform their roles, we could learn from how South Africa bowled.
"Bumrah bowled well and we all know his quality. All he wanted was a bit of support which he didn’t get,” he added.
That said, Rohit did throw his weight behind Prasidh Krishna, the debutant was undercooked, but has the tools to be successful.
“Obviously, if I look at the bowlers that we have back in India, some of them are injured, some not available, so we tried picking guys who are available, based on conditions,” he rationalised.
Up until this point, Rohit wore a despondent look - even extending glimpses of empathy towards his bowlers - but when it came to his batters, he wasn’t so understanding.
India were bowled out for 245 in the first innings, a score which they got to mainly because of KL Rahul’s 101. If that showing was bad enough, India were bowled out for 131 in 34.1 overs in the second innings.
Had they been bowled out for such a lowly total owing to exceptional bowling from the South Africans, Rohit may not have had much to say. But, given that four of their top six gave away their wickets, the skipper wasn’t in the mood to hold back.
"We can’t just go and swing our bats. These are not the conditions to do that. You got to understand that there is a thin line between showing that intent and discipline as well," Rohit said.
"Every individual is different and we try talking to every individual in the way they want to play and keeping conditions in mind, what they can do. It’s a mixture of everything, intent, a little bit of discipline and you can’t just go with one mindset in these conditions.”
Offering a template to how they could have gone about their batting roles, Rohit invoked Rahul’s century. “Look at what KL Rahul did in the first innings. It is a perfect example of showing intent as well as respecting the conditions. At end of the day, he scored at a strike-rate of 70 (73.72) and he put the bad balls away. That is what we mean by intent.”
When asked if there were any positives at all, Rohit smiled for the first time in a while and said “kya kahoon yaar (what can I say?!)” and exited the press conference as quickly as he possibly could.