IND vs SA | Series defeat against South Africa is going to pinch India, opines Aakash Chopra

India lost a three match Test series by 2-1 in South Africa on Friday. South Africa won the third Test in Cape Town by seven wickets to secure a series win. The result means that India are still in search of their first Test series win in South Africa. India started the series with a win in Centurion Test but the opposition bounced back winning the series by 2-1.

Batting has been the weakest area for the Indian team in the series. Their batsmen haven’t scored runs consistently. Form of Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara continues to be a sign of worry. Also, Shardul Thakur who was playing as an all-rounder failed to contribute with the bat. Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra has opined that series loss will hurt badly as the visitors were a far superior side to the hosts. 

"If you do a man-to-man marking with the opposing team, India was a much superior team. You won all the tosses; you allow more than 200 runs to be chased in the fourth innings, that too easily. It means this loss is going to pinch," Aakash Chopra said in a video shared on his YouTube channel.

"We won the first Test, conquered the Centurion fort, but after that loss at the Wanderers, (we) have now lost in Cape Town. The 2018 loss had hurt, but that was a contest between two evenly matched sides. Batting had let us down there also."

India were considered to be favourites ahead of the series with a world-class bowling attack for them and a weaker batting unit of the opposition. Anrich Nortje was ruled out of the series and Quinton de Kock announced his retirement after the first Test. Chopra mentioned that it was the rare instance where India were touring South Africa and were considered favourites and also praised the young South African side for their performance. 

"South Africa will have to be praised because it is a young side. It is a team against whom when you started playing, you felt that you start as favourites. When has it happened last time that you have gone to South Africa, England or Australia, where you said that you are the favorites to win, it happens very rarely," he concluded.

"But that was the case here because Anrich Nortje was not there; Quinton de Kock announces his retirement; it is a very young side where Keegan Petersen has played just two Tests before this, Rassie van der Dussen had not scored too many runs; Markram was already in and out. Your team looked much superior in batting, but it did not happen like that.”