Daijiworld Media Network
Mohali, Nov 5 : India are playing a Test at home after a span of nearly two years. The old guard has made way for brash youngsters. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and VVS Laxman will be sorely missed, but it's time to welcome the next generation. Virat Kohli will be leading his team for the first time at home as India's Test captain. Any captain leading his team for the first time at home would have loved a soft start, it's nothing but baptism by fire for Kohli. His men are up against a team that hasn't lost an overseas Test series since 2006. South Africa are the number one Test team in the world and will start the Gandhi-Mandela trophy as the favourites. It's going to be the battle of the season, who will emerge on top? Hello and a warm welcome to the first Test between India and South Africa from Mohali.
Are there any cracks in this South African outfit that India can exploit? For a start, the openers are pretty inexperienced at the highest level and the spinning stocks look pretty bare. They have named three spinners on this tour, but up against players brought up on a diet of spin, this should be one area which India will look to exploit to the maximum. On the other hand, the young Indian team looks pretty settled. They are coming on the back of a 2-1 series win in Sri Lanka.
The team management has already hinted at wanting surfaces that should blunt South Africa's pace attack and have named three spinners themselves. More about the pitch and the playing eleven at the toss.
India have already lost the T20I as well as the ODI series, but any tour can't be complete without the Tests. While losses in bilateral T20Is and ODIs will be forgotten in a while, a defeat in Tests - particularly at home will have a galling effect. The fact that India have guarded their home territory ferociously, a record of just two series defeats (against Australia in 2004 and England in 2012) since their series loss to South Africa, in 2000, gives rise to much optimism. But they are up against a team at the peak of their powers. There has been no stopping AB de Villiers over the past few years, bowlers lose their line, length and discipline, just at the sight of the world's number one batsman. He's not alone though. Test skipper, Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis add more steel and solidity to the middle-order. If the batting department is taken care of, the bowling (particularly the pacers) have exceptional records as well. No wonder, South Africa have become the team to beat over the past few years.
India have won the toss and have opted to bat
Kohli: 'We are going to bat first. It looks a pretty good wicket to bat on, on day 1 and we would like to capitalise on the best batting conditions. Not a bad start, hopefully if we bat well, it will be a better birthday (on winning the toss) but South Africa are a quality side and we need to be at our best. Bhuvi, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Binny are the four missing out.'
Amla: 'It definitely is a good wicket to bat on first. If I had won the toss, I would've batted first too. The game isn't won on the first day, so it is important to bowl well - sometimes when the wicket is like this, there is pressure on the batsmen. I'm not that young anymore (laughs - when told that he was a young Test captain). We have been a great team over the past few years and we would like to continue in that vein for this Test series. Rabada makes his debut. Bavuma, Piedt are missing out. Morne Morkel and Duminy are out with injury.'
Teams:
South Africa (Playing XI): Dean Elgar, Stiaan van Zyl, Hashim Amla(c), Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers, Dane Vilas(w), Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Simon Harmer, Imran Tahir, Kagiso Rabada
India (Playing XI): Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron
Ganesh adds more. Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron are warming up for India, so are the three spinners. That means Pujara is all but out of the playing eleven. That after making a splendid hundred on a tough batting surface at the P Sara Oval, just two innings back. But as Kohli has often said, the affable batsman will take this setback in his stride.
Pitch report: Normally at Mohali we get a nicely rolled wicket. It is a dry wicket and the ends of the pitch isn't rolled as well as the middle of the pitch. 'I have never seen so many cracks on a Mohali pitch before, this is the first time' says Sunny Gavaskar. It isn't the best of pitches to bat on reckons Sunny. Definitely a spinner's paradise!
What about South Africa? They are certain to miss JP Duminy which means that Temba Bavuma would be their sixth batsman. The team management is also expected to take a final call on Morne Morkel. Our man, Ganesh Chandrasekaran, is at the ground and he confirms that Morkel is warming up and should be featuring in this Test. That leaves only one spot to be decided - Simon Harmer was their designated spinner on the tour of Bangladesh. Will the team management keep their faith in him or will Imran Tahir, who performed well during the T20Is and ODIs, edge him out? Ganesh has something different to say though, he has seen Kagiso Rabada warming up and Vernon Philander isn't. So will it be Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Rabada as the three man pace attack?
As I previously said, India look a pretty settled outfit. Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan should be back at the top - the team management having shown faith in the struggling southpaw. Virat Kohli loves to play with five bowlers and that means Cheteshwar Pujara might be back to manning drinks - despite his 145 in the third Test in Colombo. Ravindra Jadeja - who impressed during the early stages of India's domestic season should be back and might be one of India's three spinners for the match, along with Ravichandran Ashwin (who has passed the fitness Test for a side strain) and Amit Mishra. With Ishant Sharma suspended, Umesh Yadav is all set to lead India's pace attack. Who will be his partner sharing the new ball? Will it be Varun Aaron or will India spring a surprise by playing allrounder, Stuart Binny, as the second new ball bowler? We should know the team composition in a while. Wriddhiman Saha was down with fever on the eve of the match, but should don the gloves.
Match Preview:
A big series for both teams. The No. 1 ranked side in the world takes on the most followed cricket team in the world. Mohali presents an idyllic setting to kick-start a series of this magnitude. In the lead-up to the Mandela-Gandhi trophy, Ravi Shastri, the Indian team director, likened it to be one of the biggest series to happen in India since Steve Waugh's invincibles toured here in 2001. Fifteen years is a long time in a game that has literally changed colour. The limited-overs format has gained prominence, particularly in India. Test match crowds have been on the wane. A high profile series might just be the tonic to reignite the passion, even if it is for over the course of four Tests.
It also helps that both sides have crowd-pullers. AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli and Dale Steyn will be the fan favourites but the remaining players are also quite capable of pulling off a spectacle. Virat Kohli's campaign as a Test captain, coupled with Ravi Shastri, has been about playing a 'positive' brand of cricket.
It's easier said than done, of course. The talk has always been about picking the best combination that will aid them in getting twenty wickets. For this particular squad, a five-bowler strategy would involve giving the boot to someone like Cheteshwar Pujara or Rohit Sharma - who both have been able to deliver what has been asked off them so far. The former was a brilliant boot-filler when the regular openers were injured in the previous Test in Sri Lanka but has then failed to back it up with a noteworthy performance in domestic cricket. Rohit has failed to kick off after scoring fifties in Sri Lanka.
Leaving out one of those two will be a tough decision but it is something that Kohli will have to address before his first Test as captain at home.
While Kohli harps on picking the best combination to get twenty wickets, he will also have to make that decision without his No. 1 fast bowler - Ishant Sharma. The pacer will be sitting out of the first Test in Mohali due to the ban enforced on him for misconduct during the Sri Lanka series. That leaves the door open for speculations on the seam combination. Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are the other three options. While it is unlikely that Kohli will pick Bhuvneshwar ahead of the other two quick bowlers, it will be interesting to see if he does go in with both.
Stuart Binny could be the outside choice for the second seamer's slot if India are to go in with all their three spinners - Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra and Ravindra Jadeja.
A similar conundrum exists within the opposition camp as well. South Africa are yet to make their plans clear on the combination they would want to go in with. Hashim Amla's side is no different from a traditional South African side. They use pace to pick wickets and spin to contain. As simple as that. The spinners might form an attacking option when the pitch aids turn on the fourth and fifth days but will largely be used as break-providers for the pacers. While that theory sounds good for a short Test series, the cracks are bound to show up in a four-Test series. If they do go in with an off spinner and Imran Tahir, it will increase the burden on the two pacers. It is an option worth exploring even though it might be a big deviation from tradition for South Africa.
They have been pushed to a corner after JP Duminy split a webbing on his bowling hand, rendering him unfit for the first Test. Morne Morkel is expected to have an assessment on his leg injury on the morning of the Test.
Team combinations apart, South Africa's biggest challenge will be to adapt to the conditions in India. They've rightly earned the reputation of being good tourists and will be eager to sustain that run.
Daljit Singh, the curator at Mohali, insists that the pitch will be one that aids all facets of cricket, although he also conceded that the pitch was an 'ageing one'. A couple of weeks ago, in a Ranji trophy game played on the same pitch, Yuvraj Singh smashed 187 in a high-scoring fixture. Only twenty four out of the potential forty wickets fell in that game. Only three of those went to pacers. It tells a story in itself on how the next five days are bound to shape up.
It will please Shastri, who has been vocal about making full use of the home advantage. It will not surprise Amla, who reckoned that the wicket will be a dry one. It is likely to set the tone for the rest of the series. The pitches are bound to be of the same ilk. The performances might not meander too far away from how the players from both sides handle this track.
Teams