Veteran South African quick unhappy with Bhuvneshwar Kumar being dropped for the second Test

After a disappointing loss in the first Test at Newlands, a lot of debate arose regarding the team selection of India. Although the bowlers did a nifty work in the opener, the batting lineup completely failed to deliver. And in a bid to reclaim foothold and pull themselves back in the series, the skipper Virat Kohli made quite a few interesting selections ahead of the deciding second Test which kicked off at Centurion earlier today.

However, the most surprising inclusion was that of tall, lanky Ishant Sharma in place of the in-form Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. He was one of the marquee players for India in the previous fixture. He was instrumental in helping India save some embarrassment in the first innings when he not only broke the back of the South African batting line up with some top-notch seam bowling but also held his own and made a big contribution with the bat while batting alongside Hardik Pandya.

Bringing in Ishant Sharma for Bhuvneshwar Kumar has raised quite a few eyebrows, and one of the best fast bowlers to have played the game, Allan Donald reacted rather angrily. The former Protea quick took to his Twitter handle and posted, “@BhuviOfficial left out..you are kidding me.”

You can see the Tweet below:

@BhuviOfficial left out..you are kidding me???

— Allan Donald (@AllanDonald33) January 13, 2018

Parthiv Patel hoping to make the chance count

The team-management made a couple of other changes in the lineup as well. As expected, the opener Shikhar Dhawan was replaced by KL Rahul, while Parthiv Patel made a comeback to the Test after a long time. Virat Kohli cleared during the toss that Saha was not fully fit on the eve of the game and they didn’t want to take any chance.

Though the Bengal gloveman is one of the most technically sound keepers in the country, Saha failed to make any contribution with the bat with scores of 0 and 8 in the Cape Town Test. The fact that Ravichandran Ashwin and Hardik Pandya was sent ahead of Saha shows that they still do not know what his position in the batting order is. Also with the vital away series against England, Australia and New Zealand in the coming time, Parthiv will be hoping to push for a permanent place in the team.

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