The Proteas tour to India, which begins in September of this year, will go a long way to determining South Africa’s place in the world of cricket.
The team would be hard-pressed to deliver a less satisfying display than the last visit to India when the Proteas were undone on raging turners and suffered a chastening Test series defeat.
South African cricket fans have little to give them confidence considering the last visit to Asia to play Test cricket saw the team whitewashed by a Sri Lanka side who would soon after be walloped on their own patch by England.
The last visit to India didn’t go down well with a group of supporters and pundits who felt the pitches weren’t fair considering the home side also struggled to make runs while still holding a clear edge.
Faf du Plessis and company might head to India claiming to be in search of improvement but cricket history doesn’t record improvements. The contest will not be against themselves or indeed against the pitch. It will be against an India side who are arguably the best Test side in the world right now. That is how cricket works, it is not marathon running and incremental improvements might help coaches point to work being done but cricket is a results business.
Playing their first World Test Championship series against India away, doesn’t seem prudent but for once it wasn’t a decision Du Plessis made at a coin toss and is now set pretty much set in stone.
It does mean that each of the three Test matches will be significant, especially with the World Test Championship just getting underway and the Proteas should be looking to pull off at least one win to ensure they aren’t too far behind the game early on.
A South Africa A side will play two four-day games in India before the Proteas giving the second tier of batting talent a chance to prove their worth an put pressure on the chaps in possession of spots in the Test XI.
The A-side is a mix of young talent and domestic journeymen who have earned a place on the tour through consistent performances in first-class cricket. That side will be skippered by Aiden Markram and will include the Proteas two best batsmen from their Sri Lanka tour in Theunis de Bruyn and Temba Bavuma.
The three spinners taken are an interesting group with all of them handy batsmen. George Linde is perhaps best known for his white-ball whacking but Dane Piedt has vastly improved with bat in hand since he last played for the Proteas and Senuran Muthusamy is a proper allrounder.
Keshav Maharaj remains South Africa’s best spinner in the game’s ultimate format but Sean von Berg and Tabraiz Shamsi haven’t really seized their opportunities to impress in Test cricket.
Players who perform well on the tour will do their chances of Test selection no harm but it will be the batsmen who come in for the most scrutiny. Pieter Malan has been knocking on the Proteas selectors door for some time now while Zubayr Hamza made his Test debut earlier this year. Markram might want to watch out with Warriors opener Eddie Moore also in the group. Moore is a close to a Dean Elgar understudy as one can get and has forced his way into the side by weight of runs.
The Proteas need solutions to their batting problems but before the tour even arrives there needs to be some honest reflection from players, management and administrators on the best way to move South African cricket forward.
Written by James Richardson for Hollywoodbets.
