5 Indian players who may lose their places in the Test side

The tour to South Africa is done, and as expected Team India have come out second best in the Test series. However, they didn’t surrender meekly. The first Test in Jo’burg was one that India will feel they should have won, and they surrendered the advantage in Durban after having a fantastic start through Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara on Day 1.

Although South Africa played better than India, as a team, the Indians will feel let-down by a few of their players through the course of the two-match series. Here are 5 of them, whose places could be under the scanner when the selectors meet to pick the team for the tour to New Zealand.

1. Shikhar Dhawan

Shikhar Dhawan

Scores of 13, 15, 29 and 19 are no good for an opener in any form of cricket, let alone the highest level. Shikhar Dhawan, after a promising start to his career, came unstuck in a foreign land, and couldn’t come to terms with the conditions. It was essential that Dhawan combined with Murali Vijay, who was solid in this series, to give India a worry-free start, but in all 4 innings, Dhawan played a few deliveries, and then played a poor stroke to throw it away. Dhawan needs to learn to respect the good deliveries, for you will get a lot of them in Test cricket. As his opening partner Vijay showed, when the good ones are respected, the bad ones will automatically come and they can be put away. With Gautam Gambhir being reasonably consistent in the Ranji Trophy this season, the think-tank might well think long and hard about Dhawan’s place in the side.

2. Zaheer Khan

Zaheer Khan

Much was expected out of Zaheer Khan in this Test series, but it is only fair to say that he did not live up to those expectations. Although he picked 4 wickets in the first innings at Jo’burg, he fell flat after that. When India were pushing for wickets on the final day, he was largely nonthreatening, and in Durban, he was poor, to say the very least. The likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav are waiting in the wings, and might well press for their opportunity.