SA beat IND: When will Virat Kohli have ‘hard chats’? – After the 113-run loss in Centurion, South Africa bounced back with two consecutive wins to retain the Freedom Trophy. Dean Elgar admitted that he had some hard chats with players after the defeat. It is time for Virat Kohli to be hard on his players, especially Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara. Follow IND vs SA Live Updates on InsideSport.IN.
The home side were well beaten by 113 runs in the first Test in Pretoria, but bounced back, against expectations with their young side, to win in both Johannesburg and Cape Town against the World No 1 Test team.
SA beat IND: Dean Elgar’s ‘hard chats’ with South African players deliver series, will Virat Kohli have one with Pujara-Rahane?
“Ultimately if you want to operate at a high-performance level you need to have tough, hard chats. If guys don’t like it, that is up for them to deal with. I am a bit of an old school mentality with a new school twist, but I laid down some proper challenges to some senior players to stand up and respond. It was brilliant to see the guys take the message on board. If you want to be world number one in the future, you have to compete and beat the best,” Dean Elgar said after the match.
But unlike Dean Elgar, Virat Kohli is yet to have hard chats with the two veteran batsmen who are in the eye of the storm — Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. The two have endured an awful form but India captain has continued to back them, benching two in-form players Shreyas Iyer and Hanuma Vihari. The result? India suffered four batting collapses in three matches.
SA beat IND: Dean Elgar’s ‘hard chats’ with South African players deliver series, will Virat Kohli have one with Pujara-Rahane?
Only once could Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane manage to steady the ship while scoring less than what India received as extras.
- C Pujara– 124 runs @20.66
- M Agarwal– 135 runs @22.5
- A Rahane– 136 runs @22.66
- EXTRAS– 136 runs
SA beat IND: Dean Elgar’s ‘hard chats’ with South African players deliver series, will Virat Kohli have one with Pujara-Rahane?
“As I said before we have continued to back Cheteshwar and Ajinkya for the kind of players they are, kind of performances they have put for India in the past. They played crucial knocks in the 2nd innings of last game. You saw that crucial partnership in the 2nd innings of last match that gave us a total that we could fight for. So, these are the performances we recognise as a team. What selectors have in mind and what they decide to do is not for me to comment,” Virat Kohli said.
With two matches against Sri Lanka and a short Bangladesh Test tour, India may afford to continue with Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane to give them one last chance but for the 5th Test against England, India Virat Kohli will need to have some tough chats with the two great servicemen.
Virat Kohli did have a chat with Rishabh Pant after the 2nd Test and that did help with the wicketkeeper-batsman smashing India’s second century of the series. It’s time to have one with Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane.
SA beat IND: Dean Elgar’s ‘hard chats’ with South African players deliver series, will Virat Kohli have one with Pujara-Rahane?
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