South Africa are set to travel to India to play an all-format tour beginning next month with the Proteas taking on the hosts in 2 Tests, 3 ODIs and 5 T20Is. In the longest format, India will be without stalwarts like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin who have already retired from Tests. But South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma feels that India under new skipper Shubman Gill can carry India forward.
“It seems as if the new era has kicked in, if I could say. (The) guys like Rohit, (and) before him, Kohli, they’ve done their job. They put India really on their mat and they’ve made India a team to really be feared. I’m sure India will continue to dominate. Our job as South Africa is to not allow them to dominate as much…,” he said on the sidelines of the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards.
“(There is) new leadership for India. Myself, first time (I’ll be) captaining in Test cricket in India. There’s a lot of little sub-stories about it. It can really make the game a lot more beautiful,” he added.
Bavuma, the current WTC title winning skipper, also said that he expects India to dish out turning tracks for the Test series vs the Proteas next month.
“In terms of the surfaces in India, (they are) spinner-friendly. We won’t be in shock if we get to India and we’re playing on spinner-friendly wickets. Generally, teams now are always using their conditions to their favour, especially with the World Test Championship cycle and the way that it’s been set up, so we won’t be surprised from that point of view,” he said.
“From my experience, there always seems to be a difference between the way Indian spinners bowl in their own conditions versus spinners outside of India. “There’s always that challenge of foreign spinners adjusting to the conditions. They’re either bowling quicker in these conditions (or) bowling flatter,” he added.
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