Jasprit Bumrah's inclusion in Test is good sign for India, says Mohinder Amarnath

On the first day of the series opener, Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave India an early advantage by sending three South African players back to the pavilion with the scoreboard at just 12 runs. In the second innings, Mohammed Shami took the charge and the Indian pace attack got a support in the form of Bumrah. Bumrah won the trust of the selectors with the consistent performance in the limited-overs cricket and in his first Test, he was quite impressive with his control and variations and returned with match figures of 4/112.

Ahead of the first game, the Indian batsmen must have expected a tough challenge because track’s conditions and the hosts' pace attack which includes the likes of Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel, and Kagiso Rabada took their problems to a whole new level. After wrapping South Africa’s innings at 286 runs in the first innings, the Indian batters failed to deliver as they were losing their wickets at regular intervals and at one stage their score was 92/7. In that time Pandya was the man who stood tall in the front of strong pace attack. He faced 95 balls to score his 93 runs which kept the team alive and saved them from the embarrassing situation.

"...the batting again is an issue. Actually, it was amazing — I've never seen the ball beat the bat so often as when India were batting. In both innings! That shows it's not just about technique but you have to play aggressively as well," he observed.

The Kohli-led team suffered a hectic schedule throughout the year which forced the Indian team management to cancel the practice games ahead of the first Test. The absence of practice match meant they didn’t get enough time to get used to the conditions. Despite that factor, Amarnath hoped that India would perform better as the series progresses.