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South Africa's rare chance to conquer India: Opportunities and challenges for Bavuma's team

Shreyasi

South Africa, WTC winner [Source: X/@ICC]South Africa, WTC winner [Source: X/@ICC]

South Africa, the defending World Test Champions, are set to start their India tour with two Test matches against the hosts for the iconic Mandela-Gandhi Trophy in the ‘Freedom Series’. This could be a rare chance for the Proteas to win a Test series in India after 25 years.

Despite their strong win against Australia at Lord’s to secure the WTC 2023-25 title, some questioned their journey to the final. During that cycle, South Africa played only 12 Tests, did not face Australia and England, and had away games solely in Bangladesh, the West Indies, and New Zealand. To many, therefore, South Africa's win in the World Test Championship was nothing but a fluke.

South Africa have a chance to correct those narratives now. If they can beat the Indian team in transition after their recent drawn Test series (1-1) in Pakistan, it would strongly justify their World Test Champions tag.

Indian cricket team in transition

The only time South Africa won a series in India was in 2000, a period when the Indian team, led by Sachin Tendulkar, was undergoing another transitional phase. In fact, once India lost the series 0-2, Tendulkar stepped down as captain, and Sourav Ganguly took over the role. South Africa won that series thanks to some great bowling, especially from Shaun Pollock and Nicky Boje. This time, too, they can focus on the inexperienced Indian batting lineup.

Just a year back, Indians were whitewashed at home by the Kiwis with a 0-3 margin. Although India secured a 2-0 victory against the West Indies last month, the players from the Caribbean did show a fight. Indians are still missing Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, along with Cheteshwar Pujara, as their batting mainstays. They are still looking for the right replacements.

Sai Sudharsan has not yet secured his position at number three and is coming off four modest performances in the two 'Unofficial' Test matches against South Africa A. On the other hand, Dhruv Jurel has impressed with his dual hundreds in the latest A-team game. With Rishabh Pant returning from injury, both may feature in the Tests, potentially allowing South Africa to exploit instability in India's batting lineup.

Opportunities and challenges for South Africa: Captain Bavuma to take the lead

A strong bowling line-up with varied spin options, as displayed in Pakistan, could be South Africa's forte against India in the upcoming Test series. Keshav Maharaj, the lead spinner, has experience of 60 Test matches with 212 wickets in the format. Simon Harmer has considerably less Test experience (12 games, 52 wickets) but has proved his worth with 1,000 First-Class wickets recently. He played two Test matches in India during the 2015 series, claiming 10 wickets. Senuran Muthusamy has played just seven Test matches but picked up an 11-wicket haul in the First Test against Pakistan last month. With support from top bowlers like Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen, these spinners could make things tough for Shubman Gill's team if they find their rhythm early.

Like the visitors, the hosts will also look up to the bowling unit. South Africa are also going through a transition with nine of their squad members having played fewer than 20 Test matches, and three of them are yet to reach the 10-Test match milestone. For youngsters like Tony de Zorzi and Ryan Rickelton, it will be their first-ever Test tour of India. Although India will miss the service of Ravichandran Ashwin, they still have spinners like Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, and even Axar Patel to pose enough challenge for the Proteas.

Captain Temba Bavuma's role will be crucial. While the ODIs were marred by betting controversies during the 2000 tour, Hansie Cronje’s fearless captaincy was spotless during Test matches. Bavuma needs to display the calmness and composure in his captaincy, like his batting, to cross one of the hardest frontiers in world cricket.