Ravi Shastri’s bold advice for India to win in Guwahati: Declare 100 behind if needed

Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri reckons India might have to declare even if they are 100 runs behind South Africa’s score in the first innings to get a positive result at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati. South Africa have posted 489 runs on the board and with bad light coming into play on the first two days of the Test match, it won’t be easy for the hosts to get a result out of the second game.

Senuran Muthusamy scored a fine knock of 109 runs, which was his maiden Test century. Furthermore, Marco Jansen scored a quickfire knock of 93, his highest score in Test cricket. Indian bowlers could not find much help on the surface and had to toil hard for their wickets.

Meanwhile, India lost the opening Test match against South Africa by 30 runs as they had failed to chase down 124 runs in the second innings and the Guwahati Test is a must-win contest for the hosts as far as the series is concerned. 

“Tactically, India will have to take a call tomorrow. See how they get through the new ball, then take the game forward and force a win. They’ll have to call the shots, which means you might even want to declare behind, then try to bowl out the opposition quickly in the second innings,” Shastri said on Star Sports.

“You’ve got to take those chances. You can’t wait to bat past 489 — that’ll take too long. They might have to declare 80, 90, even 100 runs behind and see how it pans out,” he added.

India is currently 92-1 and they are trailing by 397 runs. Yashasvi Jaiswal is batting on 56 whereas Sai Sudharsan is unbeaten on 14.