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Why this is India’s best chance of a Test series win in South Africa

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Last Updated on 3 years by Charbel Coorey

Cricket News: Why this is India’s best chance of a Test series win in South Africa | 3 reasons why India can win in South Africa this time

India’s tour of South Africa will start with the Boxing Day Test at SuperSport Park Centurion. India is yet to win a Test series in South Africa, which is quite surprising. Since 1992/93, India has played seven Test series in South Africa, and they’ve lost six with one series being drawn in 2010-11 under MS Dhoni.

India has won only three Test matches in South Africa since 1992-93. The first win came in 2006-07 under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid, second under MS Dhoni in 2010-11, and the third one under Virat Kohli in 2017-18 when India last played on South African soil.

India did well in the last series and were very close to winning as well but they let it slip due to a poor performance with the bat. However, this Indian Test team under Virat Kohli is the strongest Indian side to tour South Africa. India are number one in ICC Test rankings and have been exceptional in their away tours recently. They retained the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2021 with the historic Gabba win after winning it back in 2018-19 and are leading the 5-match Test series against England in England 2-1, which was postponed due to Covid-19.

This time, India has a real good chance of winning their first ever Test series in South Africa. Bets.co.za also predict India will take a lead in the series where they can go on with the job. Let’s also take a look why:

3 reasons why this is India’s best chance of a Test series win in South Africa

1. Indian Bowling Unit

The Indian bowling unit has been phenomenal for the past few years. The pace unit of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Siraj, Umesh Yadav, and Shardul Thakur have been outstanding with the ball while the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been exceptional as well.

Since 1st January 2019, Ravi Ashwin has 85 wickets in 16 matches at an average of 18.85. He is the third-highest wicket-taker during that period. Both Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami have picked 53 wickets each in 15 games during this phase. Their bowling average is 24.39 and 22.33 respectively.

Ishant Sharma has 44 wickets to his name in 15 matches and he averages 20.97 with the ball. Mohammad Siraj has 33 wickets in 10 games at an average of 27.69.

This shows that the Indian bowlers – especially the pacers – have been brilliant. South African conditions will assist the pacers a lot and India certainly has a bowling unit to exploit those conditions to the fullest.

2. India’s Excellent Form in Overseas Tours

Cricket News: Why this is India's best chance of a Test series win in South Africa | 3 reasons why India can win in South Africa this time
Why this is India’s best chance of a Test series win in South Africa – India have been excellent overseas in recent times.

As mentioned above India has done really well in overseas tours recently. They won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in Australia back in 2018-19 and then retained it in 2020-21 in a phenomenal way. They won 2 games of the 5-match series against England in England with one game being drawn and one won by England. The impactful performance particularly by the young players like Rishabh Pant, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur etc has played a very crucial role in all these historic victories. Therefore, India are certainly expected to carry their great momentum forward in this series and emerge victorious.

3. Absence of key South Africa players and lack of bench strength

This is probably the weakest South African batting lineup the Indian team is going to face in South Africa since the readmission of the African nation post apartheid. Further, the absence of some key players is certainly going to rub salt in the wound of the hosts.

Anrich Nortje, the prolific South African seamer is going to miss the entire series whereas the star wicket keeping batter Quinton De Kock is going to miss the last two Tests owing to his paternity leave.

Now the question is do South Africa have an equally good bench strength? The answer is no. Rather, their bench strength looks inexperienced and lacks quality. Although they are all set to replace Nortje with Duanne Olivier, the other seamers are untested at the international level. Their batting is definitely going to be weaker in the absence of de Kock. So, India are expected to exploit this and register their first ever series victory on the South African soil.

Due to aforementioned reasons, India surely have their best chance to win a Test series in South Africa this time and captain Kohli will definitely look to add another feather to his glorious crown as Indian Test skipper.

What do you think? Have your say!

Written by Robin Rounder. Follow Robin on Twitter today.

Robin Rounder
Robin Rounderhttps://x.com/robin_rounder
Robin Rounder, based in India, specialises in Dream11 fantasy content including tips & tricks and match previews. Also, Robin contributes cricket news and opinion pieces, with examples being pre-IPL auction content. He is a passionate India and Chennai Super Kings fan. Connect with Robin on X at: https://x.com/robin_rounder

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