- Tuesday, May 21, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
KL RAHUL, who has replaced Rohit Sharma as India’s vice-captain in the upcoming Test series against South Africa, feels that it is a “huge series”.
India will play the Proteas in a three-match series starting in Centurion on Boxing Day (26) and analysts have said that this is the best opportunity for the Asian powerhouse to register its maiden series victory in South Africa in the long format.
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“It’s a huge series for us as a team. We always take away series as a challenge. We have worked really hard on this. Winning in Australia and in England have given us good confidence. The first match of the series is the most important and our focus has been on winning the match and giving our best,” Rahul, 29, said in a press conference in Johannesburg.
KL Rahul to be Kohli’s deputy in South Africa Tests
India have so far won only three Tests in South Africa since their first tour of the ‘Rainbow Nation’ in 1992. The victories have come under the captaincies of Rahul Dravid, the current head coach; Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli.
“I never think about that. The only thing I can do is to prepare better and it is the case for everyone in the team. We have had good preparation. We have prepared the same way as we did in England. As I said, new ball is very important and we have prepared accordingly,” Rahul said.
Rahul himself has played only two Test matches in South Africa (during the 2017-18 tour) in which he has scored 30 runs with the highest score of 16.
The Indian team management will have a challenging task in hand to decide over the No.5 batter in the order. The contenders are out-of-form Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer who recently slammed a hundred in debut Test against New Zealand and Hanuma Vihari, who has lost his place in India’s Test XI but did well in India A’s recent tour to South Africa.
“It is a very difficult decision to make, obviously. Ajinkya has been a very important part of our Test team and he has played very crucial knocks in his career. In the last 15-18 months, if I can think back, his knock in Melbourne was really crucial and helped us win a Test match. That partnership with Pujara at Lord’s in the second innings, where he got a fifty, was really important. That ended up in us winning the Test match. So he has been a key player for us in that middle-order,” Rahul, who has played 40 Tests so far, said.
On his performance in South Africa, Rahul said, “I haven’t played a lot of games in SA but my experience is that the pitches could be challenging. Here, the pitch could be spongy. That is the main difference compared to the fast and bouncy pitches of Australia. I tried to play close to my body. That has been the preparation. My focus has been really to play tight and not give away wickets in the first 30-35 overs of the new ball.”
India have been in good form in Test matches played overseas. They beat Australia in their den earlier this year 2-1 and took an unassailable 2-1 lead over England before coronavirus hit the Indian camp.
