South Africa began their tour of India with a bang, winning both the T20s and the ODIs, but Test cricket, as they soon found out, was a completely different kettle of fish. It can be said that South Africa have never been at the mercy of the opposition as they were in this series. They were never in the race and never looked likely to save a Test match, forgetting winning one. The only reason they lost the series 3-0 rather than 4-0 is that the Bangalore Test was washed out. Poor show from the South Africans, one would have expected them to put up more of a fight. But unfortunately, except the remarkable AB de Villiers, none of the others showed up. Here’s how the South Africans rated.
Stiaan van Zyl – 2
Van Zyl didn’t really do much in the series. He always gave his wicket away cheaply as an opener and his only decent innings, a knock of 36, came as a middle order batsman. He was a complete failure in this series was justifiably dropped later.
Dean Elgar – 3
Elgar actually did more with the ball than with the bat in the series, picking up 4 wickets in the first match in Mohali. His batting was inadequate and he could never make his starts count. He was another failure for South Africa.
Hashim Amla – 4
Amla is one of the best Test batsmen in the world, but in this series he was distinctly average. Except for the fight put up by him in the second innings of the Test matches at Nagpur and Delhi, there really wasn’t much to Amla’s performance in the series. A rare failure for one of cricket’s nicest men.
AB de Villiers – 8
AB was the one South African who showed up. He was the only batsman in the entire South African line-up to have given the Indian spinners a cause for worry. But without support from the other end, there wasn’t much that even the great “ABD” could do. There’s no question that he is the best batsman of his generation and goes back to South Africa with his reputation very much intact.
Faf du Plessis – 2
It was an unremarkable series for Faf. Except for his patient innings of 39 in Nagpur, he did nothing at all in the whole series. Much more would have been expected from one of the best batsmen in world cricket.
JP Duminy – 3
Duminy was another South African failure. He never really did much to justify his selection in the side. He looked completely out of his depth in the series, but did well to save South Africa from being dismissed for the lowest score in Test cricket at Nagpur with a well compiled innings of 39.
Dane Vilas – 1
This was supposed to be Vilas’ big series, as he was selected instead of the very talented Quinton de Kock. But it turned out to be a nightmare for him. His keeping was average and his batting was terrible. Vilas ends the series with a single digit average.
Simon Harmer – 6
Harmer did his job and got crucial wickets. But he was never much of a threat to the Indian batsmen and his batting needs improvement is he is to play as an allrounder.
Kagiso Rabada – 6
Rabada is an extremely talented young fast bowler, but the wickets were not to his liking. There wasn’t much he could do, but he did keep up an excellent economy rate.
Morne Morkel – 8
Morkel was perhaps South Africa’s most impressive player in the series. In the absence of Dale Steyn, he was forced to lead the attack, something he doesn’t do too often, but he did that to perfection. He was a constant threat to the Indian batsmen, was fast and accurate.
Imran Tahir – 8
Tahir did his best, as he always does, and was always a threat to the Indian batsmen. He was easily South Africa’s best spinner and we believe he should be trusted more by his captain. There can be no complaints with his efforts in the series.
Kyle Abbot – 6
Abbot bowled well in the limited opportunities that he was given and was accurate. However, he is no replacement for the great Dale Steyn.
