What all went in the first Test between India and South Africa at Newlands, the same repeated in the second Test at Centurion in the case of the Indian team. The bowlers bowled their hearts out, but the batsmen failed to show a spine except for Virat Kohli’s first innings 150.

The Proteas have defeated India by 135 runs in the second Test of the three-match series at Supersport Park in Centurion. With this win, the hosts have won the series and have eventually completed the revenge of their 2015 tour when India had blanked them by 3-0 in the four-match rubber.

In the two Test matches in South Africa, his decision to drop Ajinkya Rahane for Rohit Sharma raised a few eyebrows. Kohli maintained that Sharma had been selected on the basis of his “current form” which means that it was based on his performance against Sri Lanka at home.

India made three changes going into the second Test, bringing in KL Rahul, Parthiv Patel and Ishant Sharma in place of the in-form Bhuvneshwar Kumar, an injured Wriddhiman Saha, and Shikhar Dhawan. This made became the cynosure of cricket pundits and veterans players after gambling with the playing XI for the important Centurion encounter against South Africa.

One among them was former Indian opener Virender Sehwag. Bhuvi’s heroics with the ball in the Cape Town Test gave India a great chance but despite being so exceptional he did not find a place in the playing XI. Sehwag went all guns blazing against the Indian captain for having dropped Dhawan and Bhuvi for the 2nd Test that we lost badly and helped the Proteas to win the series 2-0.

“Watching Virat Kohli exclude Shikhar Dhawan for just one Test failure, and Bhuvneshwar for no reason at all, Kohli should drop himself in the third Test at Johannesburg, as he failed to perform in Centurion.”

Sehwag further went on to say that Bhuvneshwar’s exclusion was not justified at all. He also feels that if Ishant  Sharma was to be included in the playing XI it should have done at some other bowler’s cost.

“Excluding Bhuvneshwar wasn’t the right decision. Citing that Ishant might benefit with his height, Virat Kohli has hurt Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s self-confidence. They could have played Ishant in place of any other bowler. Bhuvneshwar performed well in Cape Town and excluding him like this isn’t justified.”

Virender Sehwag wasn’t the only one who slammed Kohli for this, other members of the cricket fraternity also expressed shock and dissent on Kohli’s selection of the playing XI. Even Twitterati went animated and slammed Kohli for his bad selection of the team.

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