Guwahati, India – India suffered a dramatic batting collapse against South Africa on Saturday, November 22, 2025, during the second Test match in Guwahati. The team’s inability to adapt their tactics to the match situation was brutally exposed, leading to a disappointing performance on what appeared to be a batsman-friendly pitch.
The day’s defining moment came when stand-in captain Rishabh Pant, just two overs after the tea break, charged down the pitch to a delivery from Marco Jansen and lost his wicket due to an ugly hoick. This reckless shot brought back to mind Pant’s own frustrated outburst from the previous day, when he accused his teammate Kuldeep Yadav of making “a joke” of Test cricket for time-wasting. Pant’s impetuousness, including a wasted review, perfectly encapsulated India’s batting implosion.
Pant’s dismissal highlighted a wider problem: the team’s failure to temper their aggressive approach to the different phases of play. Just minutes before, Dhruv Jurel had fallen victim to a similar lapse in judgment, pulling a rising delivery from Jansen straight into the hands of mid-on. This ill-timed shot selection, coupled with Pant’s recklessness, played directly into Jansen’s hands, who went on to dismiss Ravindra Jadeja and Nitish Reddy with unplayable deliveries.
Reddy’s dismissal, in particular, underscored the gulf in skills and temperament between the world Test champions and the home side. Unable to keep a short ball away from a diving Aiden Markram in the cordon, Reddy’s wicket further exposed the one-dimensional decision-making plaguing the Indian batting lineup.
The root of the problem seems to lie in a flawed batting approach where consecutive deliveries of varying lengths leave batsmen befuddled. This was evident in the dismissals of the openers, who, despite initially countering Jansen effectively, ultimately succumbed to inconsistent bowling.
Off-spinner Simon Harmer’s marathon spell exemplified this inconsistency. He first troubled KL Rahul with a fuller ball pitched on the off-stump line, exploiting a deficiency in the batsman’s footwork. Later, Keshav Maharaj dismissed Rahul with a drifter that spun and bounced, catching the edge of the bat and highlighting the batsman’s inability to adjust his approach after the previous delivery.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, who had shown promise with a brisk counter-attack against Maharaj and Harmer, also fell victim to this “two-ball theory.” After dead-batting a full delivery from Harmer, he then edged a turning ball to short third, triggering a chaotic collapse marked by wilted minds, hands, and feet.
The Indian team will need to address their inconsistent decision-making and adapt their batting approach to the nuances of Test cricket if they hope to recover from this disappointing performance. The ability to temper aggression with patience and to read the game effectively will be crucial if they are to avoid similar collapses in the future.
