Greatest opportunity ever!

Team India have a golden chance to create history in South Africa by registering a maiden Test series triumph as the Proteas are at its weakest in batting department

The Gabba became a fortress for the Australians again as they trounced England by nine wickets to win the first Test match of the series. Their win in a little over three and half days’ play re-emphasises the absolute brilliance of India’s win at the same venue earlier in the year. 

India chased down a stiff target of 329 and in the end won comfortably with wickets, overs and time to spare. India’s win in the series will be forever cherished by Indian cricket followers and be written in letters of gold in the pages of Indian cricket history.

India now travel to South Africa where they have never won a Test series before and have lost every series there apart from the one in 2011 under MS Dhoni when it was drawn. 

Tour games would’ve helped

This time is India’s greatest opportunity to win as the South African team is perhaps at its weakest as a batting unit and India’s bowlers have had a nice long rest and should be at their freshest and keenest. It would have helped if there had been a three-day game or two before the Indians went into the series, but the new Covid-19 variant has made it difficult to have these games to avoid as little contact with others as possible.

That India are also playing the first Test match at batting-friendly Centurion is also a big plus for it allows the batters to get into stride before they play on the more bouncier Johannesburg and Cape Town pitches. South Africa’s pace attack is not going to be easy to tackle but here again, like in Australia, the Kookaburra ball will be a big help for the batters as it hardly moves after the hardness has gone. 

Coming back to the first Ashes Test match, England didn’t help its cause by leaving out two bowlers, who between them have accounted for more than 1200 wickets in Test cricket. 

One of the issues that have been a problem with English cricket is too much of theory. The theory was that these two bowlers, James Anderson and Stuart Broad who are on the wrong side of their thirties would not be able to play two back-to-back Test matches, and so should be kept fresh for the second Test match at Adelaide, which is a pink-ball Test. 

England cricket’s problem

Last time around, Anderson got the pink ball to wobble considerably and scalped wickets and so the decision to not pick him for the first Test is to an extent understandable, but to not also pick Broad made little sense. 

In the 2019 series in England, the tall Englishman was having David Warner for breakfast lunch and dinner. Therefore, for the opening match of the series, it was crucial to keep that psychological advantage and ensure that Warner didn’t get off to a start and regain his confidence because quite simply he is one of the most devastating batsmen in the game who can take the game away from the opposition in a session or so. Warner must have breathed a sigh of relief and got 94 but importantly had a partnership with Marnus Labuschagne that steadied the innings and gave momentum after the early dismissal of Marcus Harris.

Warner may not play the next Test with the injury he suffered when hit in the ribs by a delivery from Stokes, that blow could well have been off a ‘no ball’ by Stokes which technology failed to catch. Technology did catch only two of the 14 no balls delivered by Stokes one of which had breached Warner’s defence and reprieved him.

Later on, during the Test match, the snickometer also failed and there was a power outage where the broadcast also was affected. Just imagine if such a thing had happened in India. 

The flak the BCCI would have got would have gone through the ceiling where Indians with an axe to grind against the Board would have been the most vociferous. Sadly even some of those who make a living writing about cricket and Indian cricket in particular are among the first to jump on the bandwagon to slam the Board at every available opportunity.

What is that old saying? Yes, biting the hand that feeds you.

Professional Management Group

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