"India missed Mohammed Shami" - Sanjay Manjrekar after the Men in Blue's heartbreaking defeat vs South Africa in the Boxing Day Test
Sanjay Manjrekar believes that Team India missed senior pacer Mohammed Shami in the Boxing Day Test against South Africa at Centurion.
India lost the Test by an innings and 32 runs, their biggest-ever Test defeat on South African soil. While the visitors registered totals of 245 and 131, the Proteas managed to score 408 runs in the first innings.
Manjrekar mentioned that Shami's presence would have bolstered the Men in Blue's bowling attack, especially on the seam-friendly conditions in Centurion.
"India missed Mohammed Shami. Because you are talking about getting the most out of the pitch by hitting the pitch and not looking for movement in the air. What does Shami do best? He gets movement on Indian pitches, where there is hardly any. So, he would have been a handful," he told ESPNcricinfo.
The cricketer-turned-commentator opined that the Indian bowlers would have now identified the areas they need to target to succeed on South African pitches, adding:
"The main takeaway, apart from getting a few more runs on the board, is that you got to bowl differently, and the Indian seamers, the quality bowlers that we have, have realised that now."
Mohammed Shami has been India's standout performer with the ball this year. Unfortunately for the team, he was ruled out of the ongoing two-match Test series against South Africa due to an ankle injury.
"By the time India realized the South African way of getting more out of the pitch, enough runs were already scored" - Sanjay Manjrekar
Sanjay Manjrekar further stated that the Indian fast bowlers erred tactically by looking to pitch the ball up early in the innings in search of some swing.
He highlighted how the home team accumulated a lot of runs off the full-length deliveries by the time India changed their plan.
"If you remember the first over that Jasprit Bumrah bowled, he was trying big inswingers, Mohammed Siraj, and Shardul Thakur as well. There were three men in the covers to the left-hander Dean Elgar, and they were pitching the ball up, trying to get him to drive. Those were floaty kinds of deliveries, and India learned after that that we are not getting too much help, so let's shorten our length. By the time India realized the South African way of getting more out of the pitch, enough runs were already scored," Manjrekar said.
Jasprit Bumrah was the pick of the Indian bowlers in the Boxing Day Test, finishing with a four-wicket haul. However, he didn't receive enough support from the other bowlers as the likes of Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna leaked a lot of runs.