It is not clear if Jadeja or others on the bench will get chance but could be a good opportunity for jadeja to consolidate his batting abilities which will help him for the subsequent tours .All in all the Indian batting looks solid and should do well should they be able to adapt quickly. Moreover Indians are quite familiar with the SA bowling attack which looks somewhat hyped. Dale Steyn is not as good as he was couple of yrs ago and goes for lot of runs often. Our young talented side are much better placed now to contend with. Experienced Zaheer, the nemesis of SA cap Smith is expected to give early breakthroughs besides leading the pace attack which is very big plus. Further, it should not be a surprise if other youngsters like Shami Ahmd and B/Kumar too join the party with their swing! On the spin bowling front R. Ashwin needs to re-invent and adapt himself to the conditions learning from playing the 3 one dayers ahead of Tests.
So after lot of uncertainties finally the truncated and controversy ridden SA tour begins after all! The question that every one asking is why just 2 Tests and 3 one dayers ? Shouldn't there be 3 Tests minimum ? Srini must be saying to cricket fans be happy there is something rather than nothing. I think the last 0-8 overseas drubbing must have made him a bit cautious in pruning the series to limit the damage to the min. should the team minus Sachin Tendulpokar not do well on the bouncy SA pitches!The controversies were perhaps good cover to justify the limited tour. However I personally feel BCCI can be confident and optimistic for once because unlike touring Indian sides of past this confident young side under able captaincy of Dhoni looks good enough to give a tough fight to the Proteas. I am not sure if one dayers preceding the Tests will be advantages as Dhoni claims because whosoever wins it will have a psychological advantage in the Test series. Yes, India is doing very well in one dayers and Kohli &co. have given solid thrashing to both Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel in IPL. Still one dayers are going to be tougher compared to Test series due to weaker Indian bowling attack not exposed to SA conditions under new rules. That SA has not played well against Pakistan too gives lots of hope for the entire series with optimism of best ever chance for any Indian side to create history of winning a Test series in SA even w/o Sachin. So why not BCCI keep an option
Re: FOR THE FIRST TIME INDIA TOUR SA AS EQUALS NOT AS UNDERDOGS
by damodaran mohan on Dec 02, 2013 03:37 PM
(contd..)...BCCI keep an option of extending the series mid-way should India do well ?
Re: Re: FOR THE FIRST TIME INDIA TOUR SA AS EQUALS NOT AS UNDERDO
by Shikari Shambu on Dec 02, 2013 03:44 PM
IMO, playing the ODI series earlier is an advantage. It helps the team to be accustomed to the overseas pitches (which may be useful for the WC with less than 2 years to go).. Any injuries will not affect the WC going team. Anyway, test series is not much of a concern. At the most, we will see another mini-whitewash which will not dampen the world cup preparation.
I am so disappointed with BCCI approach towards T20I matches even though WT20 2014 is knocking the door with its priliminary qualification round is just over.With the batting power that India have and the IPL experience India is most likely to win the biggest participation Global tournament ever (For the 1st time 16 teams are participating in an ICC event in the history of cricket).The only T20I match India played for almost a year was against AUS where we chased down 200 total.Atleast i expected 1 T20 each against Zim,WI(present world champs) and SA.It is the lack of T20 experience that leads to the downfall of India in World T20s after the 2007 event.
SA is going through a lean phase as shown by rather young Pak team by drawing test series & winning ODI.The in form Indians will do reat damage to its reputation if they lose both.Indian batting will have to come good against a depleted pace attack that has only Steyn in world class league
Re: When the Indian will get really a pacer bowler
by Shikari Shambu on Dec 02, 2013 02:17 PM
We always had the best pacers in the world like Venkatesh Prasad, Abey Kuruvilla, Venkatapaty Raju, Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma. Steyn is no match for any of them :)
Re: Re: When the Indian will get really a pacer bowler
by dreamer formerlytaklu on Dec 02, 2013 02:41 PM
jokes apart, prasad was too classier to be included alongside patel, kuruvilla, sharma...he didn't intend to bowl fast...
Re: Re: Re: When the Indian will get really a pacer bowler
by dreamer formerlytaklu on Dec 02, 2013 02:42 PM
as far as i'm concerned, he was a class act.
Re: Re: Re: Re: When the Indian will get really a pacer bowler
by Shikari Shambu on Dec 02, 2013 03:37 PM
Sorry for mentioning his name, but I guess he was overshadowed by Srinath always.. He was certainly better than Kuruvilla, Mohanty, etc..
