3 reasons why India lost home Test series against South Africa
India’s shocking home series defeat to South Africa came down to tactical errors, inconsistent batting, and South Africa’s superior execution. Here are the top three reasons.
Keshav Maharaj celebrating the wicket of KL Rahul. Image | ICC
Last Updated: 04.25 PM, Nov 26, 2025
The South African cricket team has successfully defeated India in the second Test match in Guwahati. With this win, they went on to whitewash the series, 2-0. The Indian team is under scrutiny for losing two home series in the last year. There have been many complications in making the team, and the players’ performances have been completely underconfident.
On a pitch where the Proteas scored 500+ runs, Indian batters collectively in both innings couldn't touch the score. They lost by 408 runs in the match, which is a huge disappointment for a team that had once dominated Test cricket. In this article, we'll talk about the reasons why India lost the Test series against South Africa.
3 reasons why India lost against South Africa
1. Spinners failed to make an impact
The most crucial reason behind India’s loss was the failed attempts from the spinners in both the games. While it’s completely predictable that the home pitches favor the spinners more, despite that, the home team couldn’t pressurize the opponents. On the contrary, Simon Harmer, the South African spinner, claimed eight wickets in the first match and was comparatively helpful in the second game as well.
India’s top-order repeatedly failed to provide strong starts and threw away early wickets to the pacers and then to the spinners, while the Indian bowlers couldn’t create the same impact. The lack of solid spells were a strong reason for the series defeat.
2. Poor adaptation to conditions
Throughout the series, it looked like India are playing in foreign conditions and pitches while the Proteas were at home. However, that wasn't the real case. The Indian players failed to adapt to the conditions in Kolkata and Guwahati which lead to a disastrous batting and bowing at the same time.
Meanwhile, Temba Bavuma and his men were stunning with the bat as well as with the ball. Bavuma in particular played an incredible knock in the first Test, while Marco Jansen and Muthusamy outplayed the Indian bowlers.
3. Unsettled combinations and poor session management
India lost too many key moments, late-session collapses, poor shot selections, missed opportunities in the field, and conservative declarations. South Africa, meanwhile, maximized every winning position.
The most important distraction for the team was the combinations that kept on changing in every match. In the first game, Washington Sundar came in at No. 3 and was highly impressive but he batted down the order in the second game. Playing Nitish Reddy instead of Axar Patel was another disaster that happened in the game. These are the few reasons why India lost against South Africa.
How to watch India vs South Africa, ODI series?
Cricket fans in India can watch the India vs South Africa, ODI series from November 30 on JioHotstar, via OTTplay Premium.