Last Updated on 7 years by Charbel Coorey
In the lead up to the big series between South Africa and India, I couldn’t help but think why on earth India were playing Sri Lanka at home instead of spending time acclimatising to South African conditions. I then had to wipe my eyes to make sure they weren’t deceiving me when I saw India decline their only tour game ahead of the Test series. They suffered as a result in the opening two Tests, and the whole of India would jave been thankful for Hardik Pandya’s fine knock in the 1st Test, and Virat Kohli’s amazing knock in the 2nd. Also, India’s bowlers have tried hard to keep their team in the Test, but they’ve had plenty to do.
All this spells out arrogance from the BCCI and India – an attitude where they feel their batsmen are too good to have to accilimatise to conditions, and good enough to handle any challenge, based on success in conditions and against opposition that were different to what they will face in this series. Also, it shows that the commercial aspect of the game is very important to the BCCI, choosing to host a series at home against Sri Lanka that many cricket fans could not wait to see the end of, for the sake of extra $$$.
As I’ve mentioned previously, India were bashing lowly Sri Lanka in limited overs cricket, just a couple of weeks before South Africa. How crazy is that? Surely you want to give yourself the best chance of doing well in a series against the number two side, boasting arguably the best attack in the world, in their own conditions? The BCCI and India clearly thought playing more cricket in South Africa before the Tests was not as important as seeing their stars boost their averages and break records against a team that lost a home series to Zimbabwe, and have been whitewashed 5-0 in three separate ODI series in 2017.
As a result, India suffered badly. Had it not been for Hardik Pandya’s brilliant 93, India were staring down the barrel of a deficit of 150+, which would have been impossible to come back from (a lead of 77 proved too much). What’s particularly worrying is the fact that Hardik’s innings have papered over the India cracks – their top order haven’t adjusted to the bounce well at all, except for Kohli who scored a brilliant 153 in the 1st innings of the 2nd Test. Now, don’t get me wrong, India have class players, who are likely to adjust better during the series, but tour matches and time spent in the middle before the Test series is the time to get it right, NOT during the Test series!
I believe the BCCI and India have shown arrogance, and have hurt India’s chances of winning the series.
It will be interesting to see India’s approach for future big series away from home.
