Former India pace bowler Ashish Nehra has shared that Team India should play with a mindset of batting only once on Day 3 of the first Test against South Africa. His comments came as the rain washed out the entire Day 2 and Team India posted 272/3 before the stumps of Day 1 as well. Meanwhile, KL Rahul scored a hundred as well.

While speaking on Cricbuzz, Ashish Nehra said: “There are still 4 (3) days left in this Test and the way the game has proceeded so far, the way the pitch has behaved – if it had been a flat pitch and there was no help for bowlers then the day’s loss would have had a bigger impact. It can have an impact still but 4 days on this surface, you can still see a result and India just needs to put runs on the board… Now you don’t want to bat again even more because you have already scored 273 runs and don’t need to drastically increase the run rate.”

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Ashish Nehra continued: “If you score around 450, the weather keeps changing and there’s moisture on the pitch then South African batters might also struggle. Runs on board is always runs on board. In four-day matches, if the team batting first can put 425-450 runs on the board, they rule out their loss. From India’s perspective, it will have an impact but not much if they can put up 400+ runs and the conditions don’t change much.”

When he was asked whether Team India’s plan of playing with five bowlers can help South Africa as the second day has already washed out as well, the experienced has stated that it wouldn’t affect much. He, however, stated that India’s fifth bowler, Shardul Thakur, will play a key role for the team.

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“Having five bowlers are always a big plus for any team. And in these conditions, who is your fifth bowler? Shardul Thakur. The way these conditions are, and the type of bowler Shardul Thakur is, he can get a lot of help here. We saw in England he bowls the out-swing well. And how the game has gone here, Shardul Thakur can have a big role. But whether you have five bowlers or four, you just have to bowl well,” Ashish Nehra signed off.