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India chase a ‘final frontier’, aim to win Test series in South Africa
The visiting batters face a huge challenge against South Africa's fast bowlers in the two-Test series; India have never won a series in that country
It must sting by now, not winning a Test series in South Africa when England, Australia, and more recently, Sri Lanka have ticked that box. The closest India ran South Africa was in 2010-11 when they drew 1-1, and that’s still a grossly inaccurate appraisal considering how close the last two tours looked.
Two reasons have been key to India’s mediocre returns in South Africa—the batters average 22.45 runs per wicket (compared to South Africa’s 27.93) and spinners have hardly had any role to play in that country. In fact, in the last three tours, spinners have taken only 16 wickets at an average of 43.81 runs, making South Africa a graveyard for them.
This is where South Africa stands apart from Australia — spinners love the even bounce and look to exploit the cracks — and England, where pitches can be flat and slow. South Africa rarely offers either, definitely not at Centurion where rain is expected to play spoilsport on the first two days.
It’s against this backdrop that India are preparing to have another crack at solving the South Africa code. “These are very important matches in terms of where we stand as a team. Also, to look back, we have never won a series here as well. It’s a big opportunity for us to do well here,” said India captain Rohit Sharma at the pre-match press conference on Monday.
It won’t be easy. This being a shorter tour, South Africa will be hedging their bets on getting a result at Centurion through their fast bowlers. And with Dean Elgar announcing his international retirement after this series, South Africa will be keen on giving the former skipper a befitting farewell. India too are on the cusp of a massive transition.
For the first time since 2012 are they playing an away series without Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, who had displayed a knack of scoring quickly whenever he got the opportunity. This is also likely to be the last tour for Virat Kohli — he resigned as Test captain after the last tour — and Sharma.
If India continue to have Yashasvi Jaiswal open with Sharma, Shubman Gill comes in at No.3, Kohli at No.4 and Shreyas Iyer at 5. Jaiswal, Gill and Iyer have never played in South Africa and a two-Test series makes it all the more difficult to recover from a setback. It’s easy to get bogged down by the statistics of fast bowlers at Centurion. But a positive outlook and game awareness — KL Rahul’s hundred on the last tour can be a great tutorial on this — can keep the batters in good stead.
“It’s not always too late to start your Test career playing in these kinds of conditions, at some stage you have to. Speaking to these guys, they are quite excited,” said Sharma. “The bowlers dominate a lot because of the bounce, the lateral movement that the seamers get, and as the game goes on it becomes a little difficult as you see the cracks open up and spin bowlers come in. Every day has its challenge, that’s what we have experienced coming over here. Every day it gets tougher.”
How India’s middle-order shapes up depends entirely on their bowling makeup. Ravichandran Ashwin is 11 wickets away from becoming the ninth bowler to take 500 Test wickets, but Ravindra Jadeja should get the nod ahead of him if India go with one spinner. Jasprit Bumrah —he will be playing his first Test since July, 2022 — and Mohammed Siraj will share the new ball but it remains to be seen whether India pick the tall Prasidh Krishna’s hit-the-deck kind of bowling over Mukesh Kumar’s slower but more accurate seam bowling. Since it’s Centurion, and rain threat on the first two days means the pitch will be under cover for a considerable time, there will always be an inclination to pick a bowling all-rounder — Shardul Thakur in this case.
If India select along these lines, they have no choice but to ask Rahul to keep wicket. “I am not sure how long Rahul would want to keep wicket, but he is keen as of now,” said Sharma. Not going in with a specialist keeper in an overseas series has been the trend for some time now but Rahul clearly adds batting heft to a side that — barring Kohli — doesn’t have a great history in South Africa.
Sharma, who missed the last tour because of injury, averages 15.37 in South Africa in eight innings (highest 47). Gill averages 32.20 with two hundreds that came against Bangladesh in Chattogram and Australia in Ahmedabad. Iyer has a well-documented problem against the short ball that Marco Jansen will be keen on exploiting. And despite his hundred, even Rahul averages 25.6 in South Africa. Underwhelming these numbers may be but are just the right motivation to take fresh guard in a country that has become India’s final frontier.
