India vs South Africa: Virat Kohli-led visitors take on Proteas with conquest of ‘Final Frontier’ in mind

After all the drama surrounding Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly in the recent weeks, it’s time for the Indian team to shift their focus to the task at hand, that of conquering the ‘final frontier’ — a maiden Test series win on South African soil.

South Africa hasn’t always been a happy hunting ground for the Indians. They were outplayed in the 1990s by the Hansie Cronje-led Proteas, and were hardly any better in the 2001-02 series that was also marred by the ball-tampering controversy. A maiden Test win in Johannesburg in the 2006 tour under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy gave them some confidence. India then achieved their best ever result — holding the Proteas to a 1-1 draw — in 2010-11 under MS Dhoni’s leadership, before getting back to their winless ways three years later in the 2013-14 tour.

They were tipped to end the wait for a maiden series win the last time they toured South Africa in the 2017-18 season, this time under Kohli’s firebrand leadership as well as with a pace unit that was starting to develop into the fearsome battery. Unfortunately for them, taking on the Proteas in their own backyard is a challenge that is as tough as it can get, especially for the subcontinental teams (barring, of course, Sri Lanka of 2019).

However, the Indian team that is currently checked inside the bio-bubble in Centurion ahead of the first Test that starts on Boxing Day at Supersport Park is a different beast, one that can boast of an enviable Test record across conditions with back-to-back series wins in Australia, as well as a 2-1 lead in a suspended five-Test rubber in England. Kohli and Co without a doubt can count themselves as the best Test side in the world at the moment, fierce fighters in tough, alien conditions and virtually unbeatable at home.

And conditions tailor-made for the Jasprit Bumrah-led attack, along with the bloody-mindedness that the team has shown in recent years, makes this unit favourites to win the three-Test series.

And yet the timing of the squabble between the Test captain and the board, with Kohli not holding back in a memorable pre-departure interaction with reporters in which he directly contradicted with current BCCI chief and former captain Ganguly, will lead to concerns about the dressing room atmosphere and whether the episode will play on the minds of the Indians with a major challenge ahead of them.

The Proteas, too, have had similar problems of their own; an administrative crisis that has plagued South African cricket for a couple of years now, with captain Dean Elgar himself hardly aware of who’s in charge. Then there are the Social Justice and Nation-Building (SJN) hearings on racial discrimination, the final report of which has once again cast a shadow on the sport in the rainbow nation with legends of the sport such as Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers accused of “prejudicial conduct” towards non-white players.

Elgar, however, was frank in his admission that the current bunch had grown used to the gloominess that surrounded them, and had found a way to strengthen the bond within the team and thrive in adversity.

“We’ve formulated something that works for us as a close group. We have an extremely strong culture which has been tested and pushed to levels that I don’t think it will be pushed through in my short term of being captain. I think we’ve come out on top of it.

“We are a professional team, we focus on cricket and hopefully cricket can look after us,” Elgar said in a press interaction ahead of the first Test.

And the cricketing side, the batting might be lacking on the experience front a little after the retirement of former captain Faf du Plessis from the format. For Elgar, however, the key to regaining the Freedom Trophy lies in the ability of his bowling unit, led by the fiery Kagiso Rabada, to make the Indian batters dance to their tunes on the spicy pitches. And the South Africans will be sensing opportunity in the shakiness that has become associated with the visitors’ top and middle order along with the sharp decline in form of some of their seniors.

The announcement of Anrich Nortje’s exit due to a “persistent injury” just days before the Centurion Test would’ve dealt a body blow to the home team’s hopes, especially since Cricket South Africa (CSA) did not name a replacement. However, Elgar and company will not be losing a great deal of hope since Rabada will find able support from Lungisani Ngidi, who got his career off to an impressive start against the same side three years ago, and the returning Duanne Olivier, who not too long ago wanted to play Test cricket for England and now finds himself the likely replacement for Nortje in the series opener.

Olivier’s sudden announcement of signing a Kolpak deal with Yorkshire after an impressive run in the home Test season against Pakistan and Sri Lanka had sent shockwaves across the South African cricket fraternity, and would’ve been seen as a betrayal by some sections. Now that he’s back home after Brexit brought a swift end to the controversial Kolpak deals, Olivier will hope to redeem himself in the eyes of the Proteas and their legion of fans by wreaking the kind of havoc that had made him such a terrific future prospect for the national team in the first place.

The series, ultimately, will also be a litmus test for Elgar, who only took over full-time leadership of the Test side in the tour of West Indies earlier this year after wicketkeeper-batter Quinton de Kock failed to impress the powers that be in his limited reign as captain. Success against the mighty Indians not only will repose the faith that the board had shown in the left-handed opening batter, it could also go a long way in bringing back the stability that somehow has been missing in South African cricket since 2019.

All the planning however, will come down to nothing if the virus makes its way into the bio-secure bubble, the threat of which has remained omnipresent since COVID began spreading across the world since early 2020. CSA, who had recently announced that the entire tour will be played behind closed doors, are confident in the measures put in place.

“Considering that all those within the ecosystem will be vaccinated, the positive case will isolate within the hotel room if clinically stable. Contacts will continue playing and training with non-medical interventions strictly observed and tested daily,” said CSA in a statement.

Squads:

South Africa: Dean Elgar (c), Temba Bavuma (vc), Quinton de Kock (wk), Kagiso Rabada, Sarel Erwee, Beuran Hendricks, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Keegan Petersen , Rassie van der Dussen , Kyle Verreynne , Marco Jansen , Glenton Stuurman , Prenelan Subrayen , Sisanda Magala, Ryan Rickelton, Duanne Olivier

India: Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul (vc), Priyank Panchal, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj.

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