5 biggest disappointments for team India in the South African tour 

The Indian Cricket team had a successful South African tour, where they won the ODI series 5-1 and the T20I series 2-1. Despite losing the Test series 1-2 under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, the Indian cricket team retained number 1 test side and also the ICC Test Championship mace for the second successive year.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah performed brilliantly throughout the series. Team India's captain Kohli was the stand out performer in the Test series and in the ODI series. India’s spin twins Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav created havoc in the ODI series taking 33 wickets between them. Shikhar Dhawan was brilliant in ODI and T20I series.

Few Indian players could not perform according to their reputation. Here we look at the 5 biggest disappointments for Team India in the South African tour.

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#1 Murali Vijay

Murali Vijay fails in South Africa

Before coming to South Africa, Murali Vijay scored 2 big centuries against Sri Lanka at home in November- December. In the test series against South Africa, the Tamil Nadu lad struggled against top quality bowlers of South Africa like Rabada, Philander, and Morne Morkel.

The pitches in the 3 match test series were good for seamers as Vijay could not provide good starts to the team.

His top score in the series was 46, which came in the 1st innings of the 2nd test match at Centurion. He scored 102 runs in 3 matches (6 innings) at an average of 17. Despite his solid technique, Murali Vijay could not show his brilliant form in 2017/18 test series against South Africa.

#2 Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma scored 115 against South Africa in 5th ODI

Rohit Sharma was the biggest flop for team India during the 2-month long tour to South Africa. Before the South African series, Rohit scored centuries in each form. He played ahead of Rahane in the first two Test matches and could not score big runs.

In the four test innings, Rohit Sharma made just 78 runs with the top score of 47 runs in the second innings of 2nd test at Centurion.

He struggled in the One-day international series also with 170 runs in 6 matches. He made 115 during the 5th ODI at Port Elizabeth and helped team India post a competitive total. The Indian cricket team won that match by 73 runs. Apart from that, Rohit Sharma made 55 runs in 5 matches with an average of 11

Again in the T20I series, he could not give India good starts and scored just 32 runs in 3 matches.

Overall, Rohit Sharma scored 280 runs from 13 innings at an average of 21.5 which is not good for such a top quality batsman.

#3 Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya scored 93 in the first test match at Cape Town

Hardik Pandya could not prove his credentials as a potential all-rounder for team India. In the first innings of the 1st test at Cape Town, Pandya made a quick fire 93 and helped India achieve a respectable total. After that, he could not make contributions in the next 10 innings scoring 83 runs.

He played in all 13 matches of the tour. Hardik Pandya did not bowl many overs in the test series due to top quality bowlers including Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah in the bowling line up.

In the ODI format too, he did not bowl 10 overs every time. He needs to improve his bowling and batting if he wants to become a genuine all-rounder in the upcoming overseas tours to England and Australia.

#4 R Ashwin

Ashwin and Bhuvneshwar Kumar batting

Ravichandran Ashwin has been performing well on Indian soil becoming fastest to take 300 wickets in test matches. His performance on South African shores during the 3 match test series was not great. He played 2 matches (4 innings) and took 7 wickets. On a spinning wicket at Centurion, India’s star spinner took 4 wickets in the first innings.

When the team needed to take wickets in the second innings, R Ashwin failed to produce the goods and took just 1 wicket in 29.3 overs. He contributed valuable runs but could not team India win matches with the ball. He was dropped for the 3rd test match at Johannesburg. The star Indian spinner was not selected again in the ODI and T20I squads.

#5 No fixed number 4 in ODI’s

Ajinkya Rahane played at No. 4 in the ODI series

The Indian Cricket team has been struggling to find a regular number 4 batsman in ODI cricket for quite some. In the ODI series against South Africa, Rahane played at number 4. He made one good score of 79 runs in the first ODI at Durban and could not score many runs in the next 3 innings.

They have tried Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, and Suresh Raina. With the World Cup 2019 coming up, India needs to have a fixed number 4 in the upcoming ODI series against England, Australia, and New Zealand.