New Zealand in 2024 and South Africa this year— India has been whitewashed in two important Test series on its home ground for two consecutive years. The Proteas defeated India by a huge margin of 408 runs in the Guwahati Test. This is India's biggest defeat in terms of runs in Test history.
Earlier, South Africa defeated India by 30 runs in the Kolkata Test. After Kolkata, Team India had to lose the Guwahati Test against South Africa due to a similar batting disaster. Indian batsmen are supposed to bat best at home, so why have they repeatedly failed due to the failure of the batsmen in this series? Is it a mistake in team selection or a lack of balance in the batting lineup in the team - why is Team India repeatedly having to face familiar pitches? Team India's head coach Gautam Gambhir, who is currently facing heavy criticism, may have to face such a question.
On the fourth day of the Guwahati Test, South Africa had advanced so far in the match that the Indian team did not get a chance to catch the momentum. However, the little opportunity that was there for Indians was also over on the last day of the match, Wednesday, due to the lack of patience of the top order batsmen. Except for Jadeja, no one could stand at the crease like that. Just as South African Muthuswamy, Jansen, Stubbs scored runs on the same pitch, no one from India scored runs. That is why the Proteases team took the driver's seat at the end of the first innings of the match. However, it would not be right to blame only the Indian batsmen, the bowlers did not show such a fiery performance on the Guwahati pitch. While Jenson took 7 wickets in this Test, Bumrah and Siraj only got 2 wickets each. In the Indian bowling department, except Kuldeep and Jadeja, no one could impress in that way. That is why the South African batsmen scored runs easily on the pitch where the Indian batting lineup was stumped. This defeat once again put the Indian Test team in the face of a big question mark. Along with this, the debate over the team selection also started.
India had to play the entire 90 overs with 8 wickets in hand to avoid defeat on the last day of the match in Guwahati. But they could not survive more than 48 overs. They could only add 113 runs after losing the remaining 8 wickets. South Africa ended their 25-year wait for this victory on Indian ground. Before this series, they last won a Test series on Indian soil in 2000. And India lost two of the last three series on their own soil.
In the first innings of the match, South Africa scored 489 runs on Senuran Muthusamy's century. In reply, India was bowled out for just 201 runs on Marco Jansen's short ball. The Proteas were bowled out for 260 runs in the second innings. India faced an impossible target of 549 runs. They had 108 overs to achieve. But in the late afternoon of the fourth day, they lost 2 wickets in 15.5 overs. So the hosts had to do the impossible on the last day.
India could not do it again under the whirlwind of Simon Harmer. Harmer took 6 wickets for just 37 runs in 23 overs. Besides, Keshav Maharaj took 2 wickets. Ravindra Jadeja, who fought for India, played an innings of 54 runs from 87 balls. Sai Sudarshan was at the wicket for a long time and scored 14 runs from 139 balls. Aiden Markram took a total of 9 catches in two innings. This is the record for the highest number of catches in a match among non-wicketkeepers in Test cricket.
This is South Africa's third win in 4 matches in the new cycle of the ICC Test Championship. They are at number two in the table with 66.67 percent points. And India is at number four with 54.17 percent points from 4 wins in 9 matches.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
