Only 2nd Time In History! Rohit Sharma Eyes Elusive Feat Achieved By Only MS Dhoni

Rohit Sharma will be looking to become just the second Indian cricket team skipper ever after MS Dhoni to draw a Test series in South Africa as the two teams face each other on Wednesday. India's hopes of winning a maiden Test series in South Africa were dashed after a humiliating defeat in the first Test. However, a win in the second Test will mean that Rohit will be able to achieve a feat that has happened just once in the last eight occasions. Under Dhoni's captaincy, the Test series between India and South Africa in 2010-11 ended 1-1 between the two sides. Besides 2010-11, India ended up losing the Test series in 1992-93, 1996-97, 2001-02, 2006-07, 2013, 2018, and 2021-22.

India's young batsmen will simply have to find a way to cope with South Africa's "challenging" conditions, Rohit Sharma said on Tuesday.

Rohit said he did not expect conditions for the second Test, starting at Newlands on Wednesday, to be much different from those at Centurion, where India were beaten by an innings in the first Test.

"The pitch looks pretty similar to Centurion," he said. "Maybe not full of grass but there is enough covering of grass on the pitch."

Sharma missed his team's tour two seasons ago because of injury but said teammates who were in Cape Town said conditions appeared to be much as they were then, when the highest team total in a tightly-contested match, won by South Africa, was 223.

Three of India's top six batsmen are on their first tour of South Africa and they all struggled at Centurion. Sharma, who only made five and nought, said they would have benefitted from the first game.

"At some stage we all have to be exposed to conditions like this," he said.

"I am sure they will have learned a lot from the first game and tomorrow is another opportunity for them to understand what is required.

"It is challenging but that's what Test cricket is about," he said. 

(With AFP inputs)

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Rohit Sharma MS Dhoni India Cricket Team South Africa Cricket Team South Africa vs India Cricket