Two top dogs in World Cricket South Africa and India are set to lock horns today at New Orleans, Cape Town on a much discussed battle of supremacy in test cricket.
Strong South Africa is always a very difficult contestant in home condition and India is now possibly the best equipped team to challenge them. With the other important Ashes series almost decided heavily in favor of the host all attention of the cricket world will now be focused on this series.
Traditionally teams from South Asia always struggle to come to terms with South African conditions especially the batsmen. Even greats Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxsman and Shourav Ganguly had to endure huge challenges. So whatever great talents Virat, Cheteswar or Rohit may have they have to play out of their skins dealing with the likes of Rabada, Morkel, Steyn (if ready to return) and Philander.
On the other hand talented Indian pacers Kumar Sharma and Shami would have their works cut out against Amla, du Plessis and ABD. We do not think spinners won’t have much doing at least in the opening test other than doing the holding job.
Before going into further details let us have a view of the probable playing elevens.
South Africa: (probable) 1 Dean Elgar, 2 Aiden Markram, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Faf du Plessis (capt), 5 AB de Villiers/Temba Bavuma 6 Quinton de Kock (wk), 7 Andile Phehlukwayo/Chris Morris, 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Dale Steyn/Morne Morkel, 11 Keshav Maharaj
India: (probable) 1 M Vijay, 2 Shikhar Dhawan/KL Rahul, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Rohit Sharma/Hardik Pandya, 7 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Mohammed Shami
Dean Elger and Adien Markram had prolific time with the bat off late. Especially young Markram had dream journey into test cricket. It will not be easy for Indian pacers making early inroad into protean batting. Hashim Amla, du Plessis and ABD makes the nucleus of South African batting .ABD will be hungry after being away from active cricket for a while. He announced his return against Zimababwe smartly. But India will be different proposition.
We know what a silent accumulator is Amla and how destructive du Plessis can be de Cock at six and Chris Morris at seven can be equally potent if top order can let them bat freely with good foundation. Protean tail can even wag if required. I am not sure Rabi Ashwin can be an issue. South Africans played him well even in India. The key to Indian success would be exploiting the pace and bounce of the wicket and pacers hitting the deck hard. For that matter playing Pandya may be better.
Batting wise much would depend how Pujara and Kohli bat against tall fast protean attack. Rabada, Philander, Morkel and even Morris may be very difficult to handle.Vijay and Dhawan must start well. South Africans would like to bring Kohli early and attack while the cherry is still red. So indian success would depend on good opening. Pujara at three is possibly the best of his kind at this moment. Pujara and Virat would have to play longer and let Rahane and Rohit buld on their foundation. I do not think Indian tail can sustain hostile protean attack to well.
Over all it will be Indian strong batting against lethal South African pace battery that would decide the fate of the series opener. But cricket is a funny game which even Goddess dares to predict. But my money would be on South Africa.
BDST: 1033 HRS, JAN 5, 2018
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