At the Boxing Day Test against South Africa at Centurion, India was penalized for continuing to maintain a sluggish pace. The Rohit Sharma-captained team dropped to number six in the World Test Championship rankings after losing by an innings and 32 runs. India was fined for bowling two overs short by Match Referee Chris Broad, who issued the sanction following the game. In addition to being fined 10% of their match fees, the team dropped two further WTC points.
At the moment, India has a percentile of 38.89 and 14 points. The second Test against South Africa and the forthcoming five-match series against England are crucial because they could make it more difficult for them to qualify for the World Test Championship final for a record-tying third time.
Before the second Test against South Africa, the batting and bowling units need to get better. After the visiting squad was dismissed twice in 101.5 overs with the bat, Rohit took to Twitter to criticize the pace unit. He stated that the squad shouldn’t have let in more than 400 runs in Centurion and mentioned that Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, and Shardul Thakur didn’t help Jasprit Bumrah.
Conversely, Dean Elgar was declared the Player of the Match due to his outstanding century. His 185 runs helped the Proteas win handily and eliminate India from the game. In addition, Temba Bavuma, who had a hamstring strain on Day 1 of the first Test, was declared ineligible for the second Test and has been designated captain of the team.
Right now, South Africa is leading the WTC standings. They took it against India in their first Test of the cycle, and because of the victory, they are unbeaten. On the points table, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Australia, and New Zealand are ranked second, third, fourth, and fifth, respectively.
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