India vs South Africa: Speaking on Star Sports after the third ODI, Dale Steyn said that the visitors missed Ravindra Jadeja, who could have helped them perform better against the Proteas.
- Neelav Chakravarti
India crashed to a 0-3 defeat against South Africa in their three-match ODI series and displayed some poor form in all aspects of the game. The visitors were weak in their middle order and also lacked a cutting edge in their bowling department. Speaking on Star Sports after the third ODI, former Proteas pacer Dale Steyn opined that the Men in Blue missed Ravindra Jadeja and also called him a “wonderful cricketer”. Steyn explained that the all-rounder’s ability to control matches would have been a huge advantage for India along with his fantastic batting and bowling skills.
“They definitely missed somebody like Sir Ravi Jadeja. I just think he is a wonderful cricketer. He can control the game with his left-arm spin. He is brilliant and he can also bat”, said the 38-year-old.
Despite strong batting displays by Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan in Cape Town, the visitors failed to chase down a target of 288 runs in the third ODI and lost by four runs.
The middle order in particular failed to impress with Rishabh Pant getting dismissed for a golden duck. Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav could only muster 26 and 39 runs respectively.
During the three-match ODI series, the bowlers also put in an erratic display and failed to support pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah.
“India’s got a bit of a bowling issue. They need somebody to back up Bumrah. They need someone who can bowl in a 140-145km per hour bracket. Shami is great. He had a long Test series. Siraj looks like a name for the future. I think he’s got a bit of a niggle”, said Steyn during the post-match show.
The series also saw KL Rahul perform the captaincy duty due to the absence of Rohit Sharma, who was unavailable after suffering an injury last year.