Rishabh Pant and Gautam Gambhir (BCCI Photo) NEW DELHI: Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh did not hold back after India slipped to their second home Test series defeat against South Africa. He said if Indian cricket wanted to protect its “future generations”, the team management needed to rethink its approach to home pitches and move away from the heavily spin-supported surfaces that had previously helped them dominate for more than a decade – a run that ended when New Zealand handed India the lime last year.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!Taking to his YouTube channel, Harbhajan criticized the current standards of preparation for Tests, saying that Indian players have forgotten how to compete over five days as the surfaces keep producing two- or three-day matches. He added that the nature of these pitches contributed to reducing the batting numbers of stars like Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, which ultimately led to their exit from the Test setup.
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“We don’t know how to play matches for five days. We used to play so many wickets where the matches last two to three days… Nowadays it has reduced the averages of our batsmen like Virat Kohli, Pujara, Rahane to 35-40 out of 50… Our old greats were great because they knew how to play five days of Test match cricket.”He urged Indian cricket to move on from its past and prioritize better pitches over favorable results.“For the betterment of Indian cricket, I think they should forget what happened in the last 10 to 12 years… start playing on better wickets to save the future generation of Indian cricket.”Harbhajan added that Test cricket requires patience and discipline – qualities he feels have faded due to the recent conditions.“The kind of temperament required to play Test cricket requires effort, hard work, discipline and I feel that has been missing here for many years.”He further argued that good wickets create fair contests and reveal the real winner throughout the duration of the match.“But what happens to a good wicket? A good wicket makes the game last five days… This lottery type situation, earlier New Zealand was lucky, now South Africa is lucky…”Harbhajan also analyzed India’s performance in Guwahati, where the pitch looked fair and the match went to the final day – yet India collapsed twice.“South Africa won the toss on that pitch and made 489… And then in the second innings, Team India collapsed for 140… So it’s not just the pitch’s fault. I feel the biggest fault is your temperament.”South Africa dominated the Test with strong batting contributions led by Senuran Muthusama’s maiden century and Marc Jansen’s explosive 93. Jansen, who also took 6/48 in the first innings, dismantled India’s batting order before Simon Harmer completed the journey with a match-winning 6/37 in the second innings. Ravindra Jadeja’s fifty and Sai Sudarshan’s gutsy 139-ball vigil were some of the bright moments in the memorable 549 chase.South Africa sealed a commanding 408-run victory, with Harmer finishing as player of the series for his 17 wickets in two Tests, while Jansen won the Player of the Match award for his all-round brilliance.
