Ayaz Memon: India must attack South Africa early in toughest Test series

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Will Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers be the key batters in the series?

    The fiasco of the last ODI against South Africa – and the fracas that followed India’s humiliating 214-run defeat – it is virtually a no-brainer that the pitches in the four-Test series, which commences on Thursday, will be slow turners if not dustbowls.

    It was made abundantly clear – by Team Director Ravi Shastri who got into a spat with Wankhede curator Sudhir Naik as well as skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s sullen post-match responses – that the Indian team had been very unhappy they didn’t get a pitch to suit their strengths in the last ODI.

    – STEYN: South Africa can succeed on turning tracks
    – VIDEO: Pakistan vs England Day Three Analysis
    – VIDEO: Malik announces his retirement from Test cricket
    – PAKvsENG: Mohammad Hafeez leads fightback in final Test

    Essentially, this meant a turning track which had enabled India to draw level to 2-2 after conceding the lead in the ODIs. If it was not to be then (and the dispute is still to be addressed by the Mumbai Cricket Association) what else can it be now?

    Unless the curators at Mohali, Bangalore, Nagpur and Delhi – the venues of the Tests – are either diabolical or delinquent, we should expect tracks that help spinners; as was the case in the season of 2012-13 when England and Australia toured India.

    Even Mohali, where the first Test of this series is to be played and usually where pace bowlers have the advantage in terms of bounce and seam movement at least on the first two-three days, was tailor-made to suit India’s slow bowlers.

    But while the Aussies were walloped and whitewashed 4-0 in that series, it would be instructive for skipper Virat Kohli (and certainly Shastri would remember it too, though he was only a TV commentator then) to remember that the preceding series against England was lost 1-2: and this despite winning the first Test at Ahmedabad.

    Spin trio Ravindra Jadeja (L), Ravichandran Ashwin (C) and Amit Mishra in the nets.

    England, apart from showing great resolve and enterprise in turn (as reflected in the batting of Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen respectively) had also planned thoroughly for the conditions they would encounter in India by including spinners Graeme Swann, Monty Panesar and Samit Patel.

    While Patel couldn’t quite click, Panesar struck up a terrific partnership with Swann to bamboozle India’s strong and long batting line-up in the remaining Tests. When conditions became marginally helpful for swing bowling, James Anderson came into his own.

    The sum result was that India’s strategy boomeranged badly and the series was lost. Against all odds. But what that series had shown up (which the Aussies couldn’t exploit because of wrong selection and a fractious dressing room) was not only that India’s spinners could be countered, but also that Indian batsmen could be vulnerable against quality slow bowlers.

    The South Africans have taken a leaf out of England’s experiences in 2012-13 and hedged their bets by bringing an expanded complement of spinners on this tour. And this, without compromising on their intrinsic strength which is pace.

    So, apart from the redoubtable Dale Steyn, the truly express (and with steep bounce) Morne Morkel, swing and seam virtuoso Vernon Philander and promising rookie Kagiso Rabada, they also have experienced leg-spinner Imran Tahir supported by newbies Dane Piedt and Simon Harmer, not to mention canny part-timer JP Duminy.

    This is a formidable bowling attack which actually defines why South Africa are the top-ranked Test side in the world according to the ICC ratings. In any case India, ranked 5th, would have their task cut out even if South Africa did not possess such spinners because bowlers of the calibre of Steyn, Morkel and Philander as a combo really take pitches out of the equation.

    One need hardly dilate on the South African batting because the quality, experience and depth is only too well-known. AB de Villiers is in magnificent form, having already notched up four centuries on the tour, Faf du Plesssis and Duminy seem to have fulfilled their potential.

    If skipper Hasham Amla has looked out of sorts in the limited overs series, everybody knows he is a champion batsman with a sparkling array of strokes that could destroy any attack. The law of averages also would favour him now.

    Add to this the bionic fielding ability of the Proteas and the fact that they go into this series with big success in limited overs matches and it is easy to understand why India are facing their toughest challenge – perhaps since the time the two sides last played Tests in India in 2009.

    So what can India do? To say that Kohli & Co will need to score loads of runs, take wickets regularly and field brilliantly seems facetious, but it is also fact. Unless they can transfer the pressure on to the South Africans early in the series, India will be on the back foot.

    The India team get ready for the first Test in Mohali.

    From the point of view of players, the form of spinners Ravichandran Ashwin (the only one to have troubled de Villiers on this tour yet) and leg-spinner Amit Mishra is vital. They were clear match-winners in Sri Lanka, but the task this time is tougher.

    Pre-series gossip suggests that comeback man Ravindra Jadeja will be played in the first Test itself, which gives an idea of the kind of pitches to expect. Even so, I think Umesh Yadav’s sizzling pace has value, more so since Ishant Sharma misses the first Test because of a ban. I hope Yadav is played and not benched.

    Unlike India’s bowling, which was badly exposed in the limited overs series, the batting top order looks in good nick. In fact there is a problem of plenty and whom to omit.

    A great deal will depend on whether India show bravado to play five specialist bowlers, or circumspection by playing an extra batsman. In either case, skipper Kohli’s form with the bat will be as vital as his strategic thinking.

    But while South Africa go into the Test series with the tailwind of the ODI triumph to assist them in ensuring that they don’t lose an away series (they haven’t anywhere in the past 7-8 years) India will take heart from the fact that they haven’t lost to this formidable opponent at home either in almost a decade.

    It was enormous self-belief which helped India square the series 1-1 in South Africa in 2011 which took them to the number one ranked Test side then. While that is impossible now given the gulf in rating points (125-100), a win could help India overhaul Pakistan, England and Australia to become the number two side in the world in a little over a month.

    What greater incentive for any team to excel?

    Recommended