Shreyas Iyer chapter to end when Rishabh Pant returns: What IND's series draw in SA says about future of Test XI
India managed to draw a Test series in South Africa for just the second time, with the previous instance coming in 2010/11
India may have failed to record a first-ever Test series win in South Africa but they were as impressive as ever as they levelled the series in the second Test on a treacherous pitch in Cape Town. The second Test turned out to be quite a historic one, getting over inside two days and with 23 wickets fall in the first. Both teams were bowled out once in the first day and South Africa lost three more towards the end of it. On Day 2, South Africa managed to get to a score of 176 thanks to a sensational 106 off 103 balls by Aiden Markram but they could only set a target of 79 which India chased with ease. They thus drew a Test series in South Africa for just the second time, with the previous instance being in 2010/11.
While there were a lot of positives for India to take for the sheer fight they showed in the second Test and in the first Test as well in patches, there were also a number of points to ponder over. Here we take a look at five key takeaways for India after their two-Test tour of South Africa.
Kohli has rediscovered his mojo
So long was Virat Kohli's dry spell - well over three years - that fans and commentators are still looking at him keenly whenever he plays a format other than ODIs. Kohli scored a whopping 1377 runs in ODIs this year with six centuries and maintained a strike rate of 99.13, breaking all kinds of records in the process. He had played just eight Tests in 2023, which is more because of India focussing on ODIs more than anything else, and scored two centuries, after going without a ton in the previous three years. In South Africa, Kohli may not have scored a century but he was India's best by a fair distance. He was the team's highest scorer with 172 runs, with the next best being KL Rahul (113), who had scored a century in the first Test.
Rahul here to stay in middle order
2023 has pretty much been the year of KL Rahul. No one would have imagined there ever being any question of whether Rishabh Pant could walk back into the Indian Test team as wicketkeeper-batter before this series but Rahul has shown that there indeed always is competition for every position in this side. Rahul may have recorded single digit scores in the second and third innings that he played in this series, with the latter of the two triggering India's sensational collapse on Day 1 of the second Test. But it is hard to look past the perfectly paced 101 off 137 balls that he scored in the first innings of the first Test. This was Rahul's first Test series as a wicketkeeper and he did more than just hold his own in the position, hardly ever making mistakes and being captain Rohit Sharma's go-to man when it came to making DRS calls. However, considering Pant's extraordinary body of work, one can still expect him to be slotted right back into that role whenever he returns, and if he is still able to do it. And so, it is safe to say for now, that India might be tempted to see Rahul as a long-term option in the middle order rather than as their premier wicketkeeper.
Reality check for India's younger batters
Yashasvi Jaiswal smashed an epic 171 off of 387 balls in his debut Test innings in the West Indies in July 2023 and followed that up with a couple of quickfire innings in the next match of that series. However, the West Indies are hardly the force they used to be a three decades ago and in South Africa, Jaiswal was put through the ringer. He scored just 17 and five in the first Test and fell for a duck in the first innings of the second. However, the 22-year-old managed to make a good account of himself by scoring 28 off 23 balls in the second innings and setting the tone for India's chase of 79. Jaiswal is a talent and South Africa is a place where the greatest of Indian batters have struggled and yet, this series may have helped him identify the areas he needs to work on. Shubman Gill was only slightly better but there is more of a spotlight on him considering the extraordinary success he has experienced in ODI cricket this year and the fact that he is now replacing a stalwart in the Indian Test team at No.3 - Cheteshwar Pujara. Gill managed scores of 36 and 10 in the first Test and two and 26 in the second.
Questions for India's pace bowling depth
Rohit's decision to start the second session of Day 2 with Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna instead of going back to Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj was widely criticised by commentators and fans. Siraj and Bumrah had the South Africans dancing to their tunes in the first session but the threat fell of sharply whe Prasidh and Thakur were brought in. While Siraj and Bumrah were relentless, the drop off in quality when the pair had to be taken off is something that might be a cause of concern for India. Their reputation as a good touring side was built over the last six years on the back of their pace battery but here, their third and fourth seamers left a lot to be desired.
Pant's return could mean the end for Shreyas Iyer
With India expected to persist with Jaiswal and Gill and Rahul being a revelation in the middle order, the only player who could feel genuinely threatened by the return of Pant could be Shreyas Iyer. He scored 31 in the first innings during a period in which all South African bowlers, except for Kagiso Rabada, were getting their lines and lengths completely wrong. He did fall to an unplayable delivery from a fired up Rabada in that innings and there may have not been much he could do about the second and third dismissals as well but such is the competition for spots that his performances during this tour might go against him. It isn't helped by the fact that he has not been able to score a half-century in his last eight Test innings, registering scores of four, 12, 0, 26, 31, 6, 0 and 4 not out.
