Keshav Maharaj may have been unlucky not to play his first Test match on South Africa’s November 2015 tour of India. Perhaps not.
Occasionally, the pitches become too square. The first Test’s surface at Mohali was shocking, and not in a positive way for the visitors. In the second rubber match in Nagpur, even the ICC, which doesn’t readily criticize paymasters India, condemned the pitch as being subpar. It was an understatement, too.
Maharaj may have reveled in the circumstances in India a year earlier. He played his first Test the following November at the Waca, a venue that was utterly inhospitable to spin. However, it is unlikely that he would have had a significant enough impact to prevent South Africa’s 3-0 loss. In fact, in the two series matches he bowled in India in October 2019, he claimed just six wickets at an average of 85.66 in 127 overs.
Now, Maharaj is returning to try to win India’s cherry in a two-match series that begins on Friday at the Eden Gardens. Returning as South Africa’s top spinner, he trails just Nathan Lyon and Noman Ali in the ranks of slow bowlers.
The top of the ranking is Jasprit Bumrah, while Maharaj is ranked two and six spots below Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja.
A team like South Africa rarely should travel to a location like India, which theoretically poses a bigger spin danger than the local team. Even less common is South Africa’s success there. Ironically, they last triumphed in a Test match in India in February 2010 in Nagpur. They have drawn one and lost seven since then. In their first ten Test matches in India, they won four and lost the other ten. They were better once. They have lost four series, drawn two, and won one in India in February and March of 2000.
“There is a real hunger and desire within the camp to beat India and India,” Maharaj said at a press conference on Tuesday, indicating that the record was ready to be changed. It’s among the hardest tours on the schedule, if not the hardest. It’s a great chance for us to evaluate ourselves and see our progress. We have begun to gradually capture other regions of the subcontinent, and we are eager to take on this task.”
South Africa has participated in 22 Asian series, winning eight of them and losing nine. The six rubbers they played in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan between October 2007 and July 2014 were all wins. Then followed the disastrous Indian series in 2015.
This time, Senuran Muthusamy and Simon Harmer are part of their team. During the two Test matches that South Africa played in Pakistan last month, bowlers claimed 39 wickets, of which 35 were taken by Maharaj, Harmer, Muthusamy, and Prenelan Subrayen. At the Gaddafi, the home team prevailed in the opening game on a field that would have rivaled the 2015 Nagpur surface. Even though South Africa lost the toss and batted last, they tied the score on a more manageable pitch in Rawalpindi.
Did that imply that in India, the spinners had merited the authority to shape the agenda at bowlers’ meetings? “No, the spinners do the least talking; regardless of the conditions,” Maharaj responded.
Did the people of South Africa anticipate surfaces akin to those of their northern neighbors in India? “I don’t believe it will be as conducive to spin as what we saw in Pakistan. I believe the pitches will be fine, but they will get worse as the game progresses. Thus, perhaps more conventional Test pitches.
Maharaj claimed that his opinion was founded on the events of the West Indies Test matches in Ahmedabad and Delhi last month. Even so, the spinners took 35 wickets and dominated. Nevertheless, the quicks were among the 18 in the mix. India prevailed by 140 runs and seven wickets in an innings, but the Delhi match slipped into the fifth day by 17.2 overs.
Throughout the series, the average length of an innings was 83.4 overs. It was 72.2 overs in South Africa’s 2015 rubber. When they failed to dismiss India once in the three games of their 2019 series, the score was 78.4.
R Ashwin was nearing its zenith in India in 2015. His average of 31 at 11.12, which was the lowest of all 41 rubbers he participated in, made him the series’ top wicket-taker. He was the bowler who took the most wickets that year, with 62. He only had a better 12 months in 2016, when he boasted of 72.
The Indians are now in the past. Bumrah is currently their premier bowler, and he will be supported by Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep, all of whom are masters of excellent pace. It would be foolish to build pitches that dull the fast bowlers, even though Jadeja and Yadav are tremendous spinners. We are also aware that Indians are not ignorant.
“They’re a wonderful team and they’ve come a long way, especially with the transition they have made,” Maharaj added.
Indeed, they have. So has South Africa. In addition to having excellent spinners, they also have hitters who have figured out how to score runs in Asia. Five of their current crop are among the 24 players who have achieved hundreds there. This team also includes Wiaan Mulder, Tristan Stubbs, Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, and Kyle Verreynne, albeit only Markram has participated in Test matches in India.
For both teams, the 2015 series—Virat Kohli’s first home series as captain of India—was a turning point in various ways. After ten years, another might be on the horizon.
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