Following India's loss to South Africa in their Super Eight stage opener in the T20 World Cup, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar urged the Men in Blue to "be humble" and highlighted three areas where India can still make some improvement in order to reach the next round.

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A clinical South Africa, powered by crucial knocks from David Miller (63 in 35 balls, with seven fours and three sixes), Dewald Brevis (45 in 29 balls, with three fours and sixes each) and Tristan Stubbs (44* in 28 balls, with a four and three sixes), first reached 187/7 in 20 overs, with Jasprit Bumrah (3/15) being the top wicket-taker. India was skittled out for just 111 runs, with Shivam Dube (42 in 37 balls, with a four and three sixes) being the only one to cross the 20-run mark. Marco Jansen (4/22) and Keshav Maharaj (3/24) dismantled Team India with their sensational spells, plunging India's net-run-rate into negatives.

'Be Humble': Manjrekar's Message to India

Taking to Instagram, Manjrekar said, "A big defeat to India against South Africa. So, the first strong team that India has played, and they have not really coped well against that team. But the good news is that India is not out of the tournament."

"So what South Africa have done--and we have to be humble and respect the opposition and in a way thank them--is that they have shown us three areas of improvement that we can still work on and end up getting into the final rounds and hopefully win the title," he added.

Three Areas for Improvement

He pointed out India's struggles against spin, their problems against pacers when they take the pace off while bowling and the lack of another genuine wicket-taking option in the form of spinner Kuldeep Yadav.

Struggles Against Spin and Pace-Off Bowling

Even in this match, India lost four wickets to spinners and scored just 29 runs in four overs at a run-rate of just above seven.

Manjrekar said that India needs to rearrange their batting order in such a way that spin bashers can bat at the top, and a struggling Tilak Varma could bat down the order. He also pointed out how skipper Suryakumar Yadav himself is struggling against pace-off deliveries.

"The first area of concern is an obvious one: India is struggling against spin. So how do you solve that? Try to rearrange the batting order in a way that naturally good players of spin are batting up the order, and people like Tilak Varma, who is struggling a little bit, can come down the order," he said.

"The other thing which was glaring in this game against South Africa was even the pace bowlers, when they take the pace off, Indian batters are struggling. The captain seemed like the one who struggled most now when the pace is taken off."

Need for a Stronger Bowling Attack

The third is an easily solvable problem. When the batting is uncertain, not firing, very often you try and get more batting depth. There's another way to cover that weakness, and that is by having a stronger bowling attack. So get Kuldeep Yadav in. Varun can have a bad day, as we have seen (conceding 47 runs in four overs). If Kuldeep Yadav had played today, who knows, against David Miller, India could have got a wicket at that time."

"So yes, try and make a change that is possible and immediately effective, and then work on the more sort of complex problems of getting the batters to get better against spin and when the pace is taken off. So three major areas of improvement. If done quickly, India still have a great chance of getting into the final rounds," he concluded.