India versus South Africa for cricket’s World Championship. The thing is India looks really weak the way I see it. Forget the bowling for a moment. The batting, which many Indian cricket fans pride themselves on has a real chance of being terribly exposed. Let me dissect. Sehwag was found out versus the short ball versus Australia on docile Indian pitches. Dravid has had slow reflexes and I don’t see him being up to the challenge of playing quality pace bowling. Raina is, well, one of the worst test batsmen in the world at the moment. Gambhir has just come off an injury and is untested. So we don’t know whether he will succeed. He might but with the backdrop of the other batsmen, it isn’t a rosy picture.
The only two people whom we have been able to depend on have been Tendulkar and Laxman and you don’t even come close to drawing a test series versus serious opposition based on the performance of just two players over an entire series. What are the alternatives, you might ask. Pujara and Kohli (who played those two fabulous innings in the Champions League T20 in South Africa itself and showed he is comfortable on these wickets – as much as you can in a T20 inning) are the two players I would have brought in for Dravid and Raina. With the current batting line up, I am not very hopeful.
The bowling has never been India’s strength and with Harbhajan Singh – Ojha dillemna, it isn’t going to get easier. I am a fan of Pragyan Ojha. I have always liked the way he prods and asks questions from the batsmen. The faster bowlers are the key though. The positive for India is the likes of Sreesanth have had experience on South Africa wickets. The same can be said about most of the players and it means that there can’t be any excuse for a failure.
My prediction for the series? A 2-0 South African victory. If India manage to draw the series, it will be a huge achievement. A lot of people have tried to shy away from the inevitable already and are coming up with what suits their comfort zones. A fair few people have said to me that this series is not that important and the World Cup in 2011 is far more important than this. There are millions of such fans who are mad about the pyjama cricket and don’t care much about test cricket. I can’t believe they call themselves real cricket fans.
There is no two ways about it though – this IS the Real Deal. A bit of history – India claimed the number one spot in test rankings around a year ago. Not many believed they deserved it at that point – South Africa had the better bowling attack and you need good bowling attacks to win tests. The fact that India has managed to hold on to the number one ranking for such a long period in a phase when the number one place holder was not expected to stay there for much time has (rightly in my opinion) made even the critics stand up and notice. South Africa haven’t really been able to deliver while India have even with doubters sitting ready to pounce on them if India gave even an inch.
India can at worst lose this series 1-0. Even if that happens, they can say that as South Africa had the home advantage, South Africa winning the series doesn’t prove conclusively that South Africa are better. If it is a 2-0 or worse, India won’t have much to hang by and South Africa will have the bragging rights regarding the number one spot for a fair while. Now, a few Englishmen are becoming optimistic and saying England are the strongest team in the world ahead of India and South Africa. England has a very strong core individual group and I love the look of this English team. If they keep performing, they can mount a challenge for the number 1 spot but at the moment, it is just that and no more.
I hope India is not embarrassed. If India manages to draw the series, I will be over the moon.
