There were many surprised faces in the cricketing fraternity when India left Ravichandran Ashwin out for the World Test Championship final at the Oval against Australia earlier this year. There were dark clouds on the first morning, and the pitch had a green complexion to it. The team might encounter similar conditions for the first of a two-match Test series against South Africa in Centurion on Boxing Day. "You are seeing a forecast on Day 1 and Day 2. It doesn't look very good. The sun is out for four days and, so there will be some purchases for spinners, offer turn and bounce; with the weather forecast, I don't know how accurate it will be as there will be a lot of rain," curator Brain Bloy said to PTI on Saturday. Though Ashwin is eleven wickets away from the 500-wicket mark in the red-ball game, there have always been questions about his performances in SENA countries. "Ever since 2018-19, my bowling overseas has been fantastic, and I have managed to win games for the team. I am looking at it as a captain or coach, and I’m just talking in hindsight, in their defense," said the veteran, speaking to this newspaper earlier this year. However, the Indian think tank has given preference to fast-bowler Shardul Thakur in SENA conditions in recent times, and it might be the same again in Centurion. Irrespective of how much grass is left on the surface, the weather, too, seems to be against Ashwin. There is an expectation of a complete wash-out on day one and the better part of day two and cooler weather on day 3. "So if it's a Day-3, 10 am start, it doesn't give us much time because it's in the morning and you start playing at ten and really three hours of cool weather and early morning will be tricky. If it's covered for two days, I would presume bowlers would benefit from it." Boyle would say. With all the rain around, we might see Ashwin warming the bench in another SENA Test. And India is going into the game with a four-seamers-one spinners (Ravindra Jadeja) combination.
