Patience required to play five days is not there in the players any more: Sunil Gavaskar

Legendary opener Sunil Gavaskar said it will be a foolish thing to write off South Africa in the remainder of the series.

 Former India opener Sunil Gavaskar on Saturday said that it was not a poor advertisement for cricket if a Test match finishes inside three days and such results are coming more often since the players now lack patience to survive five days.

The Mohali Test between India and South Africa finished little before third day's play with the hosts trumping the visitors by 108 runs. "Getting a result in a Test match is actually a good advertisement. The host association, the TV, the fans would want the match to go to the fifth day. But it not that it is happening in India only. In Australia also the matches finish early," Gavaskar told NDTV.

"The patience required to play five days is not there in the players any more," he added.

The legendary opener said it will be a foolish thing to write off South Africa in the remainder of the series. "They are a resourceful side. They will try to work on their weaknesses. And you can't write them off. The only thing is that they need to change their batting order. AB De Villers should come at number four and Faf du Plessis at number five," he pointed out.

Talking about Man-of-the-match Ravindra Jadeja, Gavaskar said it was smart call by the Indian team management to include him in the side. "It was a sensible decision. He was hitting the deck and not just flighting the ball like Ashwin. He hit the right line and length and was rewarded.”

He said Indian batsmen "need to work more on footwork."