Former Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh said that India made a huge mistake by dropping veteran batters like Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara from their Test squads against South Africa. However, Team India failed misearably in either inning as they lost the Centurion Test by an innings and 32 runs against the Proteas as well. He also added that they do not have a better red-ball batter than the latter at the moment.

Speaking in a video on his YouTube channel, Harbhajan Singh said about Cheteshwar Pujara: “Didn’t select Ajinkya Rahane and have left Cheteshwar Pujara out for no reason. These are the two players who have scored runs everywhere. If you look at the previous record Pujara has the same contribution as Kohli had. I don’t understand why Pujara has been left out, we still don’t have a better batter than Pujara in Test cricket. He plays slowly but he saves you, because of him India won Test in Australia and England.”

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However, Harbhajan Singh also shared that the Indian team were always playing catch-up once they could only manage 245 in their first innings. He applauded the efforts of KL Rahul and Virat Kohli with the bat but also feels that overall the visitors just didn’t turn up as well.

“In three days India for a single moment never looked in the game. They scored 245 runs after losing the toss in the first innings and it was all thanks to KL Rahul. He played a fantastic knock which propelled India’s score to 245. In the second innings, India could only score 131 and if you remove Virat Kohli’s contribution then it would have been more difficult. The match was decided on India’s performance in the first innings,” Harbhajan Singh concluded.

India will try to bounce back in the second Test after such a poor show. The second Test will be played in Cape Town on January 3.