IND vs SA: 'That's where you lost all the advantage' - Gambhir reveals three reasons behind India's defeat at Wanderers

Gambhir also highlighted a major “problem area” after Team India lost by seven wickets against South Africa at the Wanderers

Not one but three reasons were highlighted by former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir for India's seven-wicket defeat to South Africa at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Wednesday. Gambhir felt that while Mohammed Siraj's injury and the height advantage played a role in separating the two bowling attacks, the “problem area” remained their batting issue.

Gautam Gambhir; Indian team

It was advantage India, who had beaten South Africa at fortress Centurion by 113 runs in the series opener and hence stood a win away from their maiden Test series win in South Africa. But the team lost Virat Kohli to an injury before Mohammed Siraj joined a list in their first bowling innings, leaving stand-in skipper with four bowlers to rotate between.

Speaking to Star Sports after the loss on Wednesday, Gambhir admitted that had Siraj been fit or recovered from his injury, the pace unit would have performed better as a group.

“India missed a fourth seamer. If Mohammed Siraj would have been 100 per cent fit then the captain would have been able to rotate his two key pacers better. And you know that once the ball gets wet, it won't help Ashwin anymore. So literally, you were playing with just three pacers. And when you expect only three pacers to pick the remaining eight wickets, you can't expect any of them to have an off day. So had Siraj been fit, we would have seen a better performance from the pace attack,” Gambhir explained.

The veteran opener then explained that with South African pacers having a height advantage, they were more able to test the Indian batters with shorter deliveries which come naturally to them rather than the Indian attack, who find bowling fuller deliveries more natural.

“You want you pace bowlers to test the opposition batters with short balls. But when South Africa pacers were bowling, they had more height, and hence did not have to press enough. You can expect that from Bumrah, but these kind of deliveries do not come naturally to Shami and hence most of his short-pitched deliveries went over the keeper's head. Bumrah's strength too lies in fuller deliveries,” he explained.

“If you look at Marco Jansen or Kagiso Rabada, their natural length is the back of length deliveries. This was also a major difference between the bowling of the two sides. On one side you have South African pacers, who are tall and are hit-the-deck bowlers and on the other hand, we have the Indian bowlers, who aren't that tall are their natural length is the fuller deliveries,” he added.

Despite highlight the bowling differences, Gambhir believes that the major issue lies in the batting, explaining that India had lost all the advantage after winning the toss when they were folded for just 202.

“But the problem area is the batting. If you win the toss, opt to bat and then get bundled for 200, it is there where you lose all the advantage. KL Rahul rightly pointed it out. The difference between Jo'Burg and Centurion was India's score in the first innings. In Centurion you scored more than 350 and you won the Test. And every time you cannot expect the bowlers to bail you out every time you set a target of 200-220. Especially when one was injured, leaving you with only four bowling options,” he added.

The final Test will be played in Cape Town starting January 11 where India will be aiming to bounce back in style and conquer their final frontier in Tests.