NEW DELHI: With India comfortably tightening their hold on the No 1 spot within the ICC Test Championship in 2017 with subcontinent series wins over Bangladesh, Australia and Sri Lanka (twice), Virat Kohli's team now begins an extended, difficult and perhaps defining away season beginning with the tour of South Africa.
Over the following 12-odd months, the Indian cricket team will play three Tests in South Africa, 5 in England and four in Australia. They will take each series as it comes, figuring out that as the first Test begins in Cape Town on January 5, the scrutiny and expectation will likely be amplified.
ALSO READ: Tendulkar on what Team India can expect in South Africa
Since India returned from the West Indies in September 2016, the place Kohli turned into the first Indian captain to win a Test series there, this team has performed each of its 19 Tests in Asia (16 at home, three in Sri Lanka), successful 14, drawing four and losing one. As has turn into the craze for India over the last few years, one heavy home season has been adopted via a string of away tours, and then the stopwatch is about to zero again, for the same development to be replayed. Thus, the South Africa tour places in movement every other cycle of away tours.
ALSO READ: We have potential to be best-ever Indian Test team: Pujara
Make no mistake. South Africa can have of their reminiscence the tour of India in 2015, when rank turners were rolled out and wickets fell in heaps, at the finish of which India were series victors and South Africa having misplaced the No 1 ranking. India have won just two Tests on South African soil courting again to their first tour there in 1992. They have by no means won a series. The challenge, in a brand new 12 months, with a well-oiled team, stays the same as with every Indian team that has toured South Africa: how to deal with the house team's tempo attack, in conditions helping rapid bowling, and easy methods to dislodge the host batsmen.
ALSO READ: Can India's tempo attack fireplace in South Africa?
While that won't translate to a bouncer barrage - impulsively dry conditions in Cape Town have left the curators suffering to prepare a full of life pitch - the challenge will likely be for India's batsmen to get up to the South Africa tempo attack. An element which, within the words of Ravi Shastri, may determine the result of the Test series. Shastri has wired again and again that India's bowlers are capable of taking 20 wickets, but that the batsmen will have to get up.
So then, let us start with the facts. Of the present Test squad, Kohli, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma have performed Tests in South Africa. KL Rahul, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, Wriddhiman Saha and Parthiv Patel have not. Jasprit Bumrah has yet to play a Test.
Kohli, in two Tests in South Africa, has 272 runs with rankings of 119 and 96 in one drawn Test. Rahane averages 69.66 in as many video games, with two fifties and a 47. Pujara averages 44.42 in four, with top rankings of 153 and 70. Vijay's moderate is 29.33 from three Tests, with one fifty. Both he and Rahane came to inside a shot of scoring centuries all through the last tour, out for 97 and 96 respectively. Dhawan averages 19 in two Tests, with a splendid of 29; 11.25 in two, with a splendid of 25.
The bowling, in response to past tours, isn't as comforting. Ishant has performed probably the most Tests in South Africa - 5 - but has managed just 12 wickets at an average of 54.16, striking every 91.3 deliveries. That is a wicket every 15 overs. Shami has six wickets in two Tests at a strike-rate of 75. Ashwin and Jadeja each performed one Test out of 2 all through the 2013-14 tour, with contrasting effects. Ashwin went wicketless within the Johannesburg draw, sending down 42 overs, and used to be dropped for Jadeja in Durban, who took six wickets in one innings. Both spinners have grown exponentially since then, at one time pushing each other for the No 1 bowler tag, and India have a difficult choice earlier than the first Test.
The trio of Shami, Bhuvneshwar and Ishant will proportion the majority of the quick bowling respnsibilities
Shastri recently commented that this is the most efficient he is noticed Ishant bowl, and given his performances against Sri Lanka recently, there may be benefit to getting him into the beginning XI for the first Test, along Shami. Thereon, India's tempo selections are not computerized. Bhuvneshwar has been very good in home conditions, but his loss of tempo may work against him in South Africa if the surfaces are not green-tinged. Umesh used to be off-key against Sri Lanka and completely outdone via his rookie Vidarbha partner Rajneesh Gurbani all through the recent Ranji Trophy semi-final, the place Karnataka were overwhelmed via just 5 runs on the last day. Bumrah is uncapped at Test degree and last performed a first-class match within the first week of 2017.
As TOI highlighted this week, the good fortune of past Indian tempo assaults in South Africa has, jointly, not been flattering bar a few stand-out exploits, which accurately have resulted within the two wins in South Africa in 2006-07 and 2010-11. In front of the South African tempo attack's collective figures, India's pales. In 235 mixed Test suits, the quartet of Dale Stein, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada has taken 976 wickets. Ishant, Shami, Bhuvneshwar, Ishant and Pandya have mixed for 477 wickets in 164 Tests. Stats don't always tell the whole reality, but neither do they lie.
Not to be overpassed within the batting v bowling discussions is an equally vital speaking point with this Indian team - the slip cordon. In India's last Test, against Sri Lanka in Delhi, Kohli, Rohit and Dhawan each dropped a catch within the slips. Dhawan spilled each that came to him within the series. Vijay, Rahane, Rahul, Ashwin and Jadeja have additionally dropped possibilities within the cordon. Not all of these men are natural slip fielders, but with such an alarming regularity of ignored possibilities, beneath watchful supervision of a fielding coach, the slip cordon is a glaring space of outrage.
Since they completed the Australia tour in early 2015, India's away Tests have been within the West Indies, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (twice). It is a large reason for his or her ascent to the top spot within the ICC Test Championship. South Africa poses their first proper test since Kohli took over as captain. This is a facet brimming with self belief. Whether it may possibly conquer 25 years of disappointment in South Africa is a special subject. Reputations are on the line.
Over the following 12-odd months, the Indian cricket team will play three Tests in South Africa, 5 in England and four in Australia. They will take each series as it comes, figuring out that as the first Test begins in Cape Town on January 5, the scrutiny and expectation will likely be amplified.
ALSO READ: Tendulkar on what Team India can expect in South Africa
Since India returned from the West Indies in September 2016, the place Kohli turned into the first Indian captain to win a Test series there, this team has performed each of its 19 Tests in Asia (16 at home, three in Sri Lanka), successful 14, drawing four and losing one. As has turn into the craze for India over the last few years, one heavy home season has been adopted via a string of away tours, and then the stopwatch is about to zero again, for the same development to be replayed. Thus, the South Africa tour places in movement every other cycle of away tours.
ALSO READ: We have potential to be best-ever Indian Test team: Pujara
Make no mistake. South Africa can have of their reminiscence the tour of India in 2015, when rank turners were rolled out and wickets fell in heaps, at the finish of which India were series victors and South Africa having misplaced the No 1 ranking. India have won just two Tests on South African soil courting again to their first tour there in 1992. They have by no means won a series. The challenge, in a brand new 12 months, with a well-oiled team, stays the same as with every Indian team that has toured South Africa: how to deal with the house team's tempo attack, in conditions helping rapid bowling, and easy methods to dislodge the host batsmen.
ALSO READ: Can India's tempo attack fireplace in South Africa?
While that won't translate to a bouncer barrage - impulsively dry conditions in Cape Town have left the curators suffering to prepare a full of life pitch - the challenge will likely be for India's batsmen to get up to the South Africa tempo attack. An element which, within the words of Ravi Shastri, may determine the result of the Test series. Shastri has wired again and again that India's bowlers are capable of taking 20 wickets, but that the batsmen will have to get up.
So then, let us start with the facts. Of the present Test squad, Kohli, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma have performed Tests in South Africa. KL Rahul, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, Wriddhiman Saha and Parthiv Patel have not. Jasprit Bumrah has yet to play a Test.
Kohli, in two Tests in South Africa, has 272 runs with rankings of 119 and 96 in one drawn Test. Rahane averages 69.66 in as many video games, with two fifties and a 47. Pujara averages 44.42 in four, with top rankings of 153 and 70. Vijay's moderate is 29.33 from three Tests, with one fifty. Both he and Rahane came to inside a shot of scoring centuries all through the last tour, out for 97 and 96 respectively. Dhawan averages 19 in two Tests, with a splendid of 29; 11.25 in two, with a splendid of 25.
The bowling, in response to past tours, isn't as comforting. Ishant has performed probably the most Tests in South Africa - 5 - but has managed just 12 wickets at an average of 54.16, striking every 91.3 deliveries. That is a wicket every 15 overs. Shami has six wickets in two Tests at a strike-rate of 75. Ashwin and Jadeja each performed one Test out of 2 all through the 2013-14 tour, with contrasting effects. Ashwin went wicketless within the Johannesburg draw, sending down 42 overs, and used to be dropped for Jadeja in Durban, who took six wickets in one innings. Both spinners have grown exponentially since then, at one time pushing each other for the No 1 bowler tag, and India have a difficult choice earlier than the first Test.
The trio of Shami, Bhuvneshwar and Ishant will proportion the majority of the quick bowling respnsibilities
Shastri recently commented that this is the most efficient he is noticed Ishant bowl, and given his performances against Sri Lanka recently, there may be benefit to getting him into the beginning XI for the first Test, along Shami. Thereon, India's tempo selections are not computerized. Bhuvneshwar has been very good in home conditions, but his loss of tempo may work against him in South Africa if the surfaces are not green-tinged. Umesh used to be off-key against Sri Lanka and completely outdone via his rookie Vidarbha partner Rajneesh Gurbani all through the recent Ranji Trophy semi-final, the place Karnataka were overwhelmed via just 5 runs on the last day. Bumrah is uncapped at Test degree and last performed a first-class match within the first week of 2017.
As TOI highlighted this week, the good fortune of past Indian tempo assaults in South Africa has, jointly, not been flattering bar a few stand-out exploits, which accurately have resulted within the two wins in South Africa in 2006-07 and 2010-11. In front of the South African tempo attack's collective figures, India's pales. In 235 mixed Test suits, the quartet of Dale Stein, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada has taken 976 wickets. Ishant, Shami, Bhuvneshwar, Ishant and Pandya have mixed for 477 wickets in 164 Tests. Stats don't always tell the whole reality, but neither do they lie.
Not to be overpassed within the batting v bowling discussions is an equally vital speaking point with this Indian team - the slip cordon. In India's last Test, against Sri Lanka in Delhi, Kohli, Rohit and Dhawan each dropped a catch within the slips. Dhawan spilled each that came to him within the series. Vijay, Rahane, Rahul, Ashwin and Jadeja have additionally dropped possibilities within the cordon. Not all of these men are natural slip fielders, but with such an alarming regularity of ignored possibilities, beneath watchful supervision of a fielding coach, the slip cordon is a glaring space of outrage.
Since they completed the Australia tour in early 2015, India's away Tests have been within the West Indies, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (twice). It is a large reason for his or her ascent to the top spot within the ICC Test Championship. South Africa poses their first proper test since Kohli took over as captain. This is a facet brimming with self belief. Whether it may possibly conquer 25 years of disappointment in South Africa is a special subject. Reputations are on the line.
New year, same challenges for Kohli's India in South Africa
![New year, same challenges for Kohli's India in South Africa]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
January 04, 2018
Rating:
