India should show faith in Pujara, Rahane: Gavaskar

The legendary Sunil Gavaskar feels Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane repaid the trust that was shown in them, adding it is easy to get excited by young talents but the team should continue showing faith in its senior players as long as they are "not getting out badly."

After a string of poor performances, the under-fire duo of Pujara and Rahane came good with the bat, scoring half-centuries in India's second innings of the second Test.

"The team has backed them because of the experience and what they have done in the past. They had the belief that they will come good and they did," Gavaskar told Star Sports.

"Sometimes we can be a little bit hard on some of our senior players because you have these exciting young players waiting in the wings and we all want to see them get a bit of exposure.

"But as long as these senior players are playing well and not getting out badly, then I think we should show faith in them," he added.

India was without the services of regular skipper Virat Kohli, who was ruled out of the Test minutes before the toss due to a lower back spasm.

"It is amazing, this is the first time that India have lost a Test match in which Virat Kohli has not played. They drew once in Sydney but otherwise they have always won.

Despite Rahane and Pujara's knocks India was not able to contain the South African batters, specially skipper Dean Elgar, who stitched crucial partnerships to lead the hosts to series-levelling win in Johannesburg on Thursday.

Gavaskar was not impressed by stand-in skipper KL Rahul's field placements.

"I thought giving Dean Elgar those singles at the start of the innings was making life a little bit easier for him.

"Elgar is not a hooker of the ball so to have two men in the deep did not make any sense. He was taking the singles quite comfortably.

"The Indian fielding could have been just that little bit sharper. But otherwise, it was the South Africans who won the game. I don't think the Indians lost it, the South Africans who won this game," said Gavaskar.