The last time India played a Test series at home was over two years ago. It’s been a long wait for Indian cricket fans since then, and it’s just great that this series promises to a cracking content – with the young and talented home side facing the mighty South Africans.
South Africa are the world’s best Test team, and that’s for a very good reason. They are really that good. South Africa last visited India five years ago, when the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, and indeed MS Dhone, still played for India. Those were the days when India were the top ranked side in world cricket.
A lot has changed since then. India are a side in transition, a team of youngsters, led by a young captain, Virat Kohli. South Africa are a team of experienced world class pros, led by the phlegmatic Hashim Amla.
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It is also Kohli’s first series at home as a captain and he is understandably excited: “It will be an exciting and special moment for me tomorrow when I take the field in my first home game as captain. Secondly it’s my birthday as well so it doubles up the excitement for tomorrow.”
Amla, on his part, was characteristically understated and gave nothing away: “I think we know the way South Africans play, whether it’s under me or Graeme. We try and play tough cricket on the field. There’s no need to look further than that. We try not to put any emphasis on the opposition, but on what we do. One of our successes is we’ve managed to bat, bowl and field pretty decently away from home and we want to continue that.”
South Africa have already won the T20s and the ODIs and look a confident bunch at the eve of the Test match at Mohali. For India, the advantage of having a different captain for Test cricket is that the team has none of the baggage of the ODIs and T20s, and can start afresh, under a new, aggressive young captain and a plenty of new players who did not feature in the ODIs and T20s.
India are certain to play with five bowlers – three spinners and two fast bowlers. With Ishant out because of an injury, the fast bowling attack will be considerably weakened. The choice will be between Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara for a middle order slot.
For South Africa, it’s bad news – they will be without JP Duminy, an important player, who is out because of a cut suffered on his hand. So, young Temba Bavuma should get a game. Morne Morkel has to pass a fitness test before he is allowed to play. Imran Tahir is expected to return to Test cricket after 2 years away.
The Teams
India:1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 M Vijay, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Cheteshwar Pujara/Rohit Sharma, 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 R Ashwin, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 and 11 Umesh Yadav/Varun Aaron/Bhuvneshwar Kumar
South Africa: 1 Dean Elgar, 2 Stiaan van Zyl, 3 Faf du Plessis, 4 Hashim Amla (capt), 5 AB de Villiers, 6 Temba Bavuma, 7 Dane Vilas (wk), 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Simon Harmer/Imran Tahir
Match Conditions
The Mohali pitch is expected to have a lot of bite in it for the spinners. There’s expected to be some assistance to pace bowlers on the first day, but not beyond that. It hasn’t rained in Punjab for months, so the weather won’t be a problem. We will certainly have 5 days of Test cricket.
Watch India take on South Africa in the first Test of the Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson Mandela series at 9:30 am from November 5th to 9th, live on Star Sports.
