New Delhi: Former pacer Ashish Nehra has said that he would be surprised if India make any change to their playing eleven for the second Test starting Monday, adding that Johannesburg also offers the same kind of pace and bounce that Centurion did in the first Test of the ongoing three-match series.
India were dominant for most of the first Test in Centurion and they beat South Africa by 113 runs. Now, Virat Kohli-led India have a chance to win back-to-back matches and register the first-ever Test series victory in South Africa.
Ahead of the clash, the former cricketer said that the absence of all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja means that there is less to think for the team management when it comes to playing Shardul Thakur and Ravichandran Ashwin and India will go with the same playing XI.
“I don’t think they will be thinking too much about changes. Johannesburg also offers the kind of pace and bounce that Centurion did. If there was Ravindra Jadeja then maybe they would have thought of playing him instead of Shardul Thakur or play these two together and keep out Ravichandran Ashwin” Nehra said on Cricbuzz.
“Apart from that there really doesn’t seem to be any problem. They have made it clear that they are going to stick with Ajinkya Rahane as well, while the fast bowlers have all done really well. So I would be very surprised if India make any changes,” he added.
The 42-year old Nehra went back memory lane and said the kind of pitch which provides seam movement have been helpful for India in the past.
“I feel giving this sort of a pitch to India has always been more helpful for them. You take any of India’s wins in South Africa, they have been on pitches that did something. When India won in 2006 when S Sreesanth took five wickets, the ball was seaming a lot. The same goes with what we saw in Centurion this time and in the last series India had won in Johannesburg as well and the pitch was doing a lot,” he said.
The former pacer also feels South Africa’s problem is only going to increase after the retirement of wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock.
“The way they won that first Test, I am seeing a big gap at the moment between India and South Africa. Of course, South Africa have gone through a lot of problems and I feel those problems will only increase in the coming days because of the retirement of Quinton de Kock. He was an experienced player and was a pretty important player to them. Dean Elgar or any captain would always want someone like him around and his departure will have an effect,” said Nehra.
