South Africa vs India 2018, 2nd Test: What went wrong for the visitors

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South Africa claimed seven Indian wickets early on day five as the visitors, who were chasing 287 for a win, folded on 151 in their second innings at Centurion on Wednesday.

Consequently, the hosts won the second Test by 135 runs and took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

On the other hand, the majority of Virat Kohli's men did not seem to have learned from their mistakes at Cape Town, as they failed to show any resistance and were completely undone by the Proteas.

The third and final Test will be played at the New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg from Wednesday, January 24.

Now, let us have a look at the things that went wrong for Virat Kohli & Co. in the second Test.

#5 Team selection

Coming into the game at Centurion after suffering a 72-run defeat at Cape Town, India made three changes to their playing XI.

KL Rahul replaced Shikhar Dhawan, Ishant Sharma came in for Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Parthiv Patel was included in place of wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, who was ruled out due to a strain.

As Virat Kohli announced the team for the second Test at the toss, he received a lot of flak on social media for dropping in-form Bhuvneshwar Kumar and not picking Ajinkya Rahane ahead of KL Rahul.

Rahane has been India’s best batsman away from home in the last 3-4 years, even though he scored only 17 runs in his last 5 innings, he is definitely more reliable than Rahul.

However, dropping Bhuvneshwar instead of Jasprit Bumrah to bring in experienced Ishant Sharma left Indian fans fuming.

With his exhilarating new-ball opening spell of swing bowling, Bhuvneshwar Kumar had crippled the Proteas early in the first Test and India definitely missed the services of the 27-year-old at Centurion.

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