In 2017, Simon Harmer signed the ‘Kolpak Deal’ to play for the English county team Essex. Harmer had given up hope of playing Test cricket for South Africa. This off-spinner played for the first time in India with the South African team that toured India in 2015, but he had an average performance in this series. After which his chances of playing another Test match in India were almost over. However, Harmer has performed brilliantly on the current tour of India, playing an important role in helping the South African team achieve a historic 2-0 win in the two-match series.

What did Simon say about playing after 2015?

After registering a big win of 408 runs in the Guwahati Test against India, Simon Harmer said on Wednesday, ‘I never thought that I would get another chance in international cricket and I also never thought that I would come to India to play again. To be here, to win the series 2-0 and to be named player of the series, it is very special. I think it will take some time to understand and assimilate it and this is a very special victory for us.

Statement given on the historic victory in India

Simon Harmer said in response to a question asked by ‘PTI’, ‘Yes, I think when I signed the Kolpak deal, one of the conditions was that I would never be able to play for my country again, so I had accepted this fact.’

Harmer, who won the ‘Player of the Series’ award by taking 17 wickets in two Test matches in India, was expecting an excellent performance from himself on this tour. He said, ‘I always wanted to be able to look back at the end of my career and say that I was the best for myself.

Shubman Gill’s reaction has come to light after the 0-2 defeat in the Test series at the hands of South Africa. After the 408-run defeat in Guwahati, Gill has said that Team India will forget this difficult phase and move forward strongly. This was also India’s biggest defeat by runs in the history of Test cricket. Let us remind you that Shubman Gill could not play the second test against South Africa due to injury.

Shubman Gill, reacting to

Calm seas don’t teach you how to steer, it’s the storm that forges steady hands. We’ll continue to believe in each other, fight for each other, and move forward – rising stronger.

— Shubman Gill (@ShubmanGill) November 26, 2025

Injured Shubhman Gill had reached Guwahati with Team India with the hope that he would recover before the start of the second match. But later he was declared unfit by the medical team, after which he returned to Mumbai. Gill has also been ruled out of the three-match ODI series against South Africa. Gill was recently appointed the captain of India’s ODI team. The ODI series will be played from 30 November to 6 December. He can play in the India-South Africa T20 series starting from 9 December.

South Africa maintained its dominance in the Guwahati Test from beginning to end. Africa had set a target of 549 runs for Team India. In response, Indian batting was reduced to just 140 runs. Marco Jansen proved to be the biggest villain for Team India in this match, who apart from playing an inning of 93 runs, also took 6 wickets in the first innings. Aiden Markram took a total of 9 catches in this match, which was also the most catches taken by a fielder in a single Test match.

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It is very rare for an Indian team to fail against spin bowling in its home series. South Africa, the current champion of WTC, has done this. South Africa’s spinners took a total of 25 wickets in the series, which was the main reason for their 2-0 victory in the series. Shadab Jakati, who has played for three teams including Chennai Super Kings in IPL, said in a special conversation with ABP that Gautam Gambhir is a good coach, but to bring good results for the team, the players will have to do well.

Today’s batsmen don’t have that thing

Indian batsmen are failing in front of spin bowling, the team is not able to win matches at its own home. On this, Shadab Jakati said, “At one time, Indian batsmen were known to be experts for spinners, like Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, they were in a different class. Now that our players have started playing more white ball cricket (ODI and T20), there has been a lot of difference in the batting of Test cricket and white ball cricket. Because red ball also has seam and swing, but in white ball matches, T20 has flat pitches, where there is turn. It doesn’t happen at all. Somehow it makes a difference in batting in Tests.”

He further said, “I feel that today’s batsmen have lost class. As cricket is developing, it has to be accepted that things are changing. Now there are less Test matches, more white ball cricket has been played, this has made a lot of difference to our Indian batsmen.”

Gautam Gambhir is a good coach, and the coach can’t play on the ground.

After Gautam Gambhir became the head coach, South Africa is the second team to clean sweep the Indian team in a Test series at home. Last year New Zealand had defeated India 3-0.

When Shadab Jakati was asked what mistake Gautam Gambhir is doing as a coach, in response he said, “Gautam Gambhir is a good coach, but the coach cannot play on the ground. His job is management, motivating the players, telling them things technically. Gambhir motivates the players as much as he can. Only our players will play inside the ground, only they have to play. Cricket is like this, sometimes a team wins which The team plays well, it wins.”

He further said, “I think our bowling and batting department also lacked in both the Test matches. South Africa played better, so they are in a better position. The road ahead looks a bit difficult for the team, but I believe that Gautam Gambhir has given good results in the past as well. As much as I know Gautam Gambhir, he will try to do better, whatever mistakes are being made, Gambhir will definitely want to improve them. Talking about Test cricket, our team is still very young, lack of experience. So maybe we will see better performance in future.”

Ever since Gautam Gambhir became the head coach of Team India, he has played 6 Test series. Of these, India has lost three series, won only two and one series was a draw. Within the last one year, New Zealand and now South Africa have clean swept India in the Test series at their home. By the middle of the year 2023, India was the number-1 Test team in the world. Under Virat Kohli, India used to be the top team in the world in Test cricket. Know here 3 reasons due to which Team India is continuously performing poorly.

1. Craze for feeding all-rounders

Ever since Gautam Gambhir became the head coach, the strategy of depth in batting has been seen. Its advantage is that Team India has batting till numbers 8 and 9, but due to this the bowling has become weak. Earlier, the team used to have a combination of 6 specialist batsmen, 5 specialist bowlers and one all-rounder. The number of specialist players kept changing depending on the bowling or batting pitch. Now if we look at the Guwahati Test itself, the Indian team had three all-rounders in the form of Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar and Nitish Reddy. Especially Sundar and Reddy have proved to be poor with both bat and ball. Had a specialist batsman or bowler been played in his place, perhaps the result of the South Africa Test series would have been different.

2. Selection based on IPL performance

Statistics show that within the last one and a half years, many players who have done well in IPL have entered Team India. The biggest example of this is Harshit Rana, who has experience of only 14 first-class and 27 List-A matches. But in the last two IPL seasons, he has taken 34 wickets for KKR. Nitish Kumar Reddy is also often said to be the replacement of Hardik Pandya, but his performance has not been very good. Washington Sundar also comes in this category of players.

3. Constant changes in batting order

Continuous Test series, continuous new order and new batsmen. This is happening continuously in the Indian Test team. Especially problem number 3 is not being solved. Washington Sundar played at number 3 in the first test after dropping Sai Sudarshan. When Sudarshan was brought back in the second test, Sundar was dropped at number 8. Number-3 has a lot of importance in test matches. On the other hand, something similar has happened with Sanju Samson in the T20 team, who had scored 3 centuries in the opening round, but now the situation is such that he is in danger of being dropped from the team.

South Africa has defeated the Indian team 2-0 in the Test series at its home. Team India lost the second test by 408 runs, which is India’s biggest defeat in terms of runs in the history of test cricket. Rishabh Pant was captaining the Indian team in this match, hence the tag of biggest defeat may remain on Pant’s forehead for many years to come. On this shameful defeat, captain Rishabh Pant said that cricket cannot be taken lightly.

Take cricket lightly…

Captain Rishabh Pant said in the post-match presentation, “This defeat is very disappointing, we need to do better as a team. We also have to praise the opposition team because they played better cricket than us. A series like this is very difficult in the beginning, then you start thinking too much, so you have to learn and stay united.”

Rishabh Pant further said, “Obviously they (South Africa) dominated the entire series. You cannot take cricket lightly, even if you are playing on your home ground. We have to keep our mindset clear.”

Shameful record added to Rishabh Pant’s name

Rishabh Pant has now become the Indian captain to suffer the biggest defeat of runs in Test cricket. South Africa has defeated Team India by 408 runs in Guwahati. Earlier, India’s biggest defeat in Test was 342 runs. In the year 2004, Australia defeated the Indian team by 342 runs. The record of biggest defeat as Indian captain was in the name of Rahul Dravid for the last 21 years, but now Rishabh Pant has gone ahead in this list.

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South Africa has won the 2-match Test series 2-0 by defeating India by a huge margin of 408 runs in Guwahati. Team India failed in every field in the second test. One of the 5 major reasons for this defeat is the strategy of coach Gautam Gambhir, which failed in Guwahati. Lack of experience was clearly visible under the captaincy of Rishabh Pant. There is still confusion regarding the batting order. In the first Test, Washington Sundar was tried at number three, he also batted well but due to the arrival of Sai Sudarshan in the next Test, he again had to move down to the lower order.

1. Extra all-rounders

India gave importance to additional all-rounders in this series instead of Test specialist players, this strategy was a complete failure of Team India. All-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy was playing in the second test, but he bowled only 6 overs in the first innings and 4 overs in the second innings. India could have played a better specialist batsman than this. Apart from him, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar were the other two all-rounders playing.

2. Experiment number 3 failed

The experiment of number-3 in the Indian batting order failed in this series also. After Cheteshwar Pujara, India is not able to set any batsman in this position. In the first test, Washington Sundar batted at number three, Sai Sudarshan came in this match. Sudarshan failed in both the innings.

3. Indian batsmen kneeled in front of spin.

There is a perception about Indian batsmen that they play spin well, but this was not seen at all in this series. South Africa’s batsmen played better spin than Team India’s batsmen. Simon Harmer had scored 119 runs on this pitch, Marco Jansen had played a quick inning of 93 runs.

4. Lack of experience seen in the captain

Rishabh Pant was playing his first Test as captain, his lack of experience was clearly visible. His body language also looked tired in the second innings of South Africa. This team has experienced players like Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, although he was seen taking advice from them in the test but nothing was successful. When India was in trouble in the first innings, Rishabh Pant lost his wicket by playing an irresponsible shot. Pant, who scored 7 runs in the first innings, could score only 13 runs in the second innings.

Test captain Shubman Gill left the field in the first Test due to neck cramps. He could not bat in the first test and had to be ruled out of the second test also.

5. Gautam Gambhir’s strategy

Both India’s wicket keepers Dhruv Jurel and Rishabh Pant were included in the playing 11 in both the Tests against South Africa. This was a shocking decision. Jurel certainly did good fielding, but with the bat he completely flopped in the second test. In the first innings of the second Test, Jurel was out for zero, in the second innings he was out after scoring 2 runs. There was also uncertainty regarding the batting order in the playing 11.

The first test match between India and South Africa lasted only two and a half days. The pitch of Eden Gardens is being criticized. However, Indian team head coach Gautam Gambhir has supported the pitch and the curator. But Michael Vaughan has given exactly the opposite statement. Vaughan had called it a ‘poor pitch’ during the second day’s play. Let us tell you that on the third day in the Kolkata Test, the Indian team could not achieve even the small target of 124 runs.

Now Michael Vaughan has once again criticized the pitch of Eden Gardens. “If you prepare a pitch like this you deserve to lose against the World Test Champions. Great win for South Africa,” he said in a post on X.

Simon Harmer, who has taken more than a thousand wickets in first-class, single-handedly overpowered Team India, taking a total of 8 wickets in the entire match. Especially in the second innings, he took away the strength of the Indian middle order batting. He took the wickets of Rishabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav.

Prepare a pitch like that and you deserve to lose against the World Test champs…. brilliant win by SA…. #INDvSA

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) November 16, 2025

Kolkata’s pitch was described as poor

A total of 15 wickets fell on the second day in the Kolkata Test, while Indian captain Shubman Gill was retired due to neck strain. The second day was completely dominated by the spinners. Michael Vaughan reacted to this and described the Eden Gardens pitch as poor.

The South African team last won the Test in India in 2010. After 15 years, no Test match has been won on Indian soil under the captaincy of Temba Bavuma. Let us tell you that under the captaincy of Bavuma, the South African team has remained invincible in test matches so far. The second test of both the teams will be played in Guwahati from 22nd November.

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IND vs SA Test Series Date And Time: South African team is coming on India tour. On this tour, 2 Test, 3 ODI and 5 T20 matches will be played between India and South Africa. South Africa’s tour of India is going to start from Friday, November 14, when the first test match will be played between the two teams. The command of India’s Test team will be with Shubman Gill. Rishabh Pant is going to make a comeback in this test series. Earlier, Pant was made the captain of India A in the match being played against South Africa A.

India vs South Africa Test Series

The Test series between India and South Africa will start from 14th November, which will continue till 26th November. The first match will be played in Kolkata and the second match in Guwahati.

• The first Test match between India and South Africa will be played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata from November 14 to November 18. According to Indian time, this match will start at 9:30 am.
• The second match of this test series will be played between 22nd November to 26th November, which will be played at Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. This match will start at 9 am Indian time.

Team India will also play ODI and T20 series

After the two-match Test series between India and South Africa, a series of three ODIs and five T20 matches will also be played.

• The first match of the ODI series will be played at JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi. This match will start at 1:30 pm.
• The second ODI will be played at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur. This match will also start at 1:30 pm.
• The last match of this series will be played at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. This match will start at 1:30 pm.

t20 series

• 1st T20- 9 December, Cuttack
• Second T20- 11 December, New Chandigarh
• 3rd T20- 14 December, Dharamshala
• Fourth T20- 17 December, Lucknow
• Fifth T20- 19 December, Ahmedabad

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On Saturday, 8 November, India vs Australia fifth T20 match was canceled due to rain. The Indian team won the series 2-1, but the Indian players did not get even a day’s time to celebrate this victory. There is news that 4 Indian players including captain Shubman Gill are going to reach Kolkata on Sunday. India vs South Africa first test match is to be played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata from 14th November.

According to news agency PTI, Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar, Akshar Patel and Jasprit Bumrah will board the flight directly from Brisbane to Kolkata. The South African team will also reach Kolkata on Sunday. Other Indian players will reach Kolkata in different groups on Monday. The Indian team will start practicing for the next Test series from Tuesday.

India vs South Africa 2 test match series will start from 14th November. The first match will be played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, while the second test will be played in Guwahati from November 22. South Africa is the current World Test champion, who is coming to India tour after drawing the Test series with Pakistan one-on-one.

On the other hand, the Indian team played its first series against England in the WTC 2025-27 cycle. Under the captaincy of Shubman Gill, Team India had held England to a 2-2 draw in the Test series at their home.

A total of 44 test matches have been played between India and South Africa so far. Of these, Team India has been victorious 16 times, but South Africa is ahead in terms of victory because it has defeated India in Test matches on 18 occasions. His 10 matches have been draws. South Africa has defeated India 3 times in the last four Test matches.

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Rishabh Pant Injured Again Against South Africa: India’s star wicketkeeper batsman Rishabh Pant was returning after injury in the Test series against South Africa. But Pant got injured once again while playing an unofficial test match against South Africa A. Pant went out of the field after getting injured on the third day of the second unofficial Test. Let us tell you that Team India has to play the first test match against South Africa from 14th November.

Rishabh Pant injured once again

An unofficial test match is being played between India A and South Africa A at the Center of Excellence in Bengaluru. After batting on the third day of the match, Pant was hit thrice by Tshepo Moreki’s ball. The ball of this South African bowler also hit Pant’s helmet. Rishabh Pant had to retire hurt as the ball hit his body three times. Pant wanted to bat during the match, but coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar and physio asked Pant to retire.

Will Pant play against South Africa?

Rishabh Pant was injured by Chris Woakes in the fourth test played against England in Manchester. Pant’s toe was fractured. After recovering from this injury, after about 3.5 months, Pant is part of the Test series played against South Africa. There is still time for the series against India-South Africa, till then Pant can take a break and join Team India. Whereas in the first test against South Africa, India’s playing eleven will be revealed during the match itself.

• First Test- 14-18 November, Kolkata
• Second Test- 22-26 November, Guwahati

India’s squad for test series

Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper and vice-captain), KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudarshan, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav and Akashdeep.

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