Sad we lost in Cape Town but important to stay positive, says Shikhar Dhawan

India’s first overseas challenge as the No. 1 Test team was one where they settled on the receiving end having succumbed to rigours of South African conditions in the Cape Town Test. Virat Kohli & Co. saw a window of opportunity but Vernon Philander ended all hopes of a victory, as the hosts schooled the visitors by 72 runs.

Shikhar Dhawan, who managed a total of 16 in both innings (from 13 balls and 20 balls respectively), is already looking forward to next match. He took to Twitter to post a message on what his approach will be for the second Test in Centurion.

“It’s sad we lost the game! But it is important we stay positive and confident as a team. Looking forward to the next game,” he posted.

It's sad we lost the game! But it is important we stay positive and confident as a team.. looking forward to the next game? pic.twitter.com/92t7Jiinuq

— Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25) January 9, 2018

With that loss also came a drop in the latest ICC rankings of specific players. Virat Kohli, who scored 5 and 28 in the match which was dominated by the pace bowlers from both sides, fell one place to No.3 while Cheteshwar Pujara’s 26 and 4 saw him slip two places down to No.5. Dhawan, on the other hand, has slipped three places to 33.

India blew their chance in Cape Town and the challenge is going to go up a notch higher at Centurion for the second Test and Johannesburg for the third Test. Centurion is another fortress considering seven of the 11 regulars in the Protean squad are locals and even though South Africa won’t have Dale Steyn in their ranks, they have enough firepower to go with Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada. In fact, they might even contemplate adding an extra batsman to the line-up after the way India’s pacers bowled this week.

5 bowlers

What India does after this loss will be interesting since their bold selections and combination did not reap total success. However, former skipper Sourav Ganguly has figured out what went wrong and how India should approach the next game. However, if the problem he diagnosed is resolved Shikhar may well warm the bench and make way for KL Rahul unless the management thinks Murali Vijay, despite his upper hand in Test cricket, should be the one getting the axe.

“India will play five bowlers because the problem is not with your fifth bowler batting option. The problem is with your top and middle order batting options. Hardik Pandya played magnificently despite the fact that he went to South Africa without much of match practice. You cannot go in a Test match without a spinner so that chapter closes. Ravichandran Ashwin also got you 30 runs with the bat. The problem is not fast bowling, the problem is not Hardik Pandya, the problem is not Ashwin. The problem is your top-order batsmen,” Ganguly told India Today.

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