India's Ravindra Jadeja passes the ball to India's Jasprit Bumrah on the second day of the second cricket test match between India and South Africa in Guwahati, India, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)Former India player Aakash Chopra said that when a pitch does not offer assistance to the India bowlers, they seem to lack a bit of creativity in bowling the opposition out. This was after the Proteas made the Indian bowlers toil in Guwahati in the 2nd India vs South Africa Test on Sunday. The South Africans batted throughout day 2, posting 489 runs with the India bowlers looking to have run out of ideas on how to take them out.
“If there’s help for the bowlers in a pitch, we criticize the batters. If a pitch is a seaming one, we’ll see a situation like in Perth. If it’s a little spin friendly pitch, the situation will be like the Eden Gardens Test. But we forget the fact that if a pitch is not spin or pace-ready, are the bowlers then lacking in plans? Are they actually bereft of ideas? We have seen this in the Arun Jaitley stadium as well that when we had to bowl for such a long time, we couldn’t get the West Indies out easily. The field placement become defensive and you wait for a mistake,” Chopra said in a video on his X handle.
India Bowlers Miss A Trick At Guwahati? #INDvsSA #Aakashvani pic.twitter.com/cHIoUBrOOY
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) November 23, 2025
“That’s exactly how we played and bowled in Guwahati. It’s the same story in Guwahati because the pitch is good. If the opponent team digs in, you say wait and set the field back. There’s a lack of creativity. Because the bowlers have developed a bad habit where every time you get a bowler-friendly pitch and get wickets in a jiffy. But when you bowl long spells, you can’t create anything new. If this bowling persists, then you will move towards extreme pitches because there you at least can take wickets. But if you go in that direction, you sometimes get caught in the same trap that was laid by your own self. As much as we criticize the batters, this pitch (Guwahati) needed a bit better bowling, a bit of planning and some creative captaincy,” he added.
South Africa’s Senuran Muthusamy scored a century and Marco Jansen slammed 93, putting the Proteas in an advantageous position against India who started the day looking to take the 4 remaining wickets after ending Day 1 at 247/6. But Muthusamy and Jansen had other ideas.
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