India vs South Africa: Sunil Gavaskar rips apart 'listless' Rohit Sharma and Co

Sunil Gavaskar launched a scathing attack on Team India as South Africa took a 163-run lead in the Centurion Test on Thursday. Indian bowlers, especially Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna, once again had a poor day in the office as Dean Elgar and Marco Jansen slammed 111 runs together to help the Proteas reach 408.

India vs South Africa 1st Test Day 3 LIVE

Gavaskar was livid with how India started Day 3 of the first Test and called their performance “listless”.

“India have to wake up. they have been listless. some of the efforts we’ve seen, some of the body language is very very listless at the moment. Yes, Bumrah bowled a good spell but that was not backed up,” Gavaskar said on air.

“I can understand this attitude an hour after tea on a hot day but not on the first hour of the day, definitely not,” he added.

The legendary batter went on to add that even if the match scenario was not in India’s favour, the players needed to show more energy.

“They perhaps hoped to get an early wicket but once they didn’t get that, they went into a shell. There was not much clapping. There was nothing to encourage the bowlers. The boundaries were flowing and that is where you could see the body language was really down. There was no energy. This was supposed to be a crucial morning session. They really should have shown more energy,” Gavaskar said.

Apart from the frontline pacers, Bumrah, who took four wickets for 69 and Siraj (2/91), the change pacers were very poor. Thakur took one wicket for 101 and gave away runs at an economy of 5.30. Krishna leaked 93 runs for one wicket and had an economy of 4.70.