Ind vs SA - Is Rohit Sharma's poor run on South African turfs a cause for concern for Team India?

In the ten innings he has played in South Africa thus far, Rohit Sharma has scored two ducks and managed to score more than 20 only twice, with his highest score being 47.

Rohit Sharma's struggles in South Africa continue

Team India's plans of conquering the final frontier of South Africa have gotten off to an abysmal start as Rohit Sharma & co. encounter a massive defeat against the home side. Having been put into bat by the Proteas, the Indian men's team managed only 245 in the first innings and to make things more difficult, the bowling unit was out of sorts throughout.

Dean Elgar would score a trademark gritty 185 with Marco Jansen chipping in with a superb 84 to take South Africa to 408 in their response. Scaling a huge mountain, India needed something very special to first pull themselves out of an innings-defeat scenario and then potentially look at winning the game.

Much to their and the entire country's disappointment, team India was bundled out for a measly 131 to hand South Africa an innings-and-32-runs victory. This is India's third straight loss against the South Africans in Test cricket.

What this does is put the spotlight on skipper Rohit Sharma, who failed to show up with the bat in both innings. Sharma has already been under the scanner for his slightly lacklustre captaincy throughout the game but his batting performance(s) have now brought to focus just how much he struggles on South African turfs.

In the ten innings he has played in South Africa thus far, Rohit Sharma has scored two ducks and managed to score more than 20 only twice, with his highest score being 47. He averages only 12.80 and quite evidently finds the swinging conditions to be testing, especially considering he has done well against South Africa while playing in India.

In the first innings of the most recent test, Sharma fell to Kagiso Rabada's short delivery and was caught out at long leg playing his favourite pull shot. The second innings, though, saw Rabada getting the better of him by first testing his outside off and then pitching one up at the stumps, only to let it straighten in the end. The ball would crash into the off stump, with Rohit Sharma out for a duck.

Is this alarming? Well, maybe not just yet because Sharma's record overseas has been extremely impressive of late and he has tackled some of the toughest spells with a good mix of tenacity, technique and patience. However, with India now looking to regroup after the heartbreaking World Cup loss earlier this year, the South Africa Test series win would be the perfect remedy. And for that, the team needs Rohit Sharma to step up.

Also Read: IND vs SA: Unable to take wickets, fans unhappy with Shardul Thakur, Prasidh Krishna's bowling

But it would perhaps be unfair to pull up Rohit Sharma. The top order, also including Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer, too, have failed to rise to the occasion and offer that much-needed cushioning to the talismans Sharma and Virat Kohli. The only silver lining, though, is that the latter looks nearly at his best and is currently leagues apart from the rest with the bat.

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