Opinion Express View on India’s Test triumph: A special victory
For India, the Cape Town Test series was also about missed opportunities. It must plan, a busy season beckons
Virat Kohli dazzled, prospering in the harshest of conditions; KL Rahul stroked a grittily graceful hundred. But the rest of Indian batting crumbled, struggling to negotiate the moving and bouncing ball. 
India’s Test triumph over South Africa at Cape Town was special in several ways. One of the greatest wins abroad, it entered the record books as the shortest ever Test match in the history of the game. Even leveling the series in South Africa is considered a feat for Rohit Sharma and his men since it has been achieved only once before in nine trips. But once the immediate euphoria subsides, India could reflect on the series as a lost opportunity. It has never won a Test series in South Africa and the failed attempt of the 2023-24 tour once again proves that Indian cricket’s final frontier remains daunting.
Virat Kohli dazzled, prospering in the harshest of conditions; KL Rahul stroked a grittily graceful hundred. But the rest of Indian batting crumbled, struggling to negotiate the moving and bouncing ball. The performances of the trio considered as the future of Indian batting — Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer — too were disappointing. True, the conditions were extreme on most days, but some batsmen, like Kohli, Rahul, Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram showed that run-making is indeed possible, though it required awareness and courage, steeliness of mind and sturdiness of technique. South Africa’s batsmen, too, did not fare significantly better in a two-Test series that lasted barely the duration of an entire Test.
A better preparation in the build-up to the Test series would have equipped them to deal with the vagaries. Even the bowlers were erratic in the first Test, thus emphasising the virtues of practice games and camps before important away tours. But if India are serious about emerging as a world-beating Test side, there’s little time to brood over missed opportunities. A busy season beckons; India would play 15 more Tests this calendar year, apart from the T20 World Cup and IPL. Now is the time to plan ahead — to ensure that players are fit for the big series, they are not fatigued, the fast bowlers are smartly managed and the batsmen tighten their game. Else, they would be left ruing chances not taken, as in South Africa.
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