NEW DELHI: India captain Rohit Sharma promised to rally strongly following their crushing innings and 32-run loss to South Africa on Thursday when they play the second and last Test of their brief series next week.
Even though India lost the opportunity to win the series, captain Rohit Sharma, who was dismissed for low scores in both innings, predicted that his team would rally and return stronger.
Since South Africa is the only nation where India have not won a Test series, the short journey there was nicknamed the 'final frontier.' However, they are unable to achieve so at this time.
"Honestly, look, we're not good enough to win this match," said Rohit, whose side was dismissed for 131 in their second innings on the third day.
"I thought we got decent runs on the board on that track in the first innings, KL Rahul did brilliantly to get us that century. But then we failed to exploit the conditions with the ball.
"Then again, we didn't show up with the bat today as well. Our batting was poor in the second innings. If you want to win test matches, you've got to come together collectively. But we failed to do that."
Rohit also singled out Virat Kohli's second innings knock as he scored 76 of the Indian runs as a one-man bulwark with wickets tumbling all around him.
"When you lose a game in three days, there's not a lot of positives but like I mentioned, the way KL Rahul batted in the first innings showed a lot of us what you need to do on that kind of pitch. A lot of our bowlers haven't been here before, they're still learning. So I don't want to be too critical of them.
"We will regroup, and we'll fight back," Rohit said.
India's series dream ends in three-day defeat by South Africa
India have never won a Test at Newlands, where the second Test starts next Wednesday.
"It's important for us to regroup as quickly as we can. It's tough to take a loss like this. But as sportsmen, we all go through these kinds of times, and you need to pick yourselves up, get ready for the next challenge, which is in front of you," he added.
(With Reuters inputs)The TOI Sports Desk excels in a myriad of roles that capture the ...
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