India’s tour of South Africa has not been a great one yet. This was touted as India’s best chance to win their first Test series on these shores, but not a lot has gone to plan. The series loss has shed light on the issues with the batting lineup and the over-dependence on the pacers to do the job.
Add to that Kohli’s sudden announcement giving up the Test captaincy, and the team wouldn’t be in the best of spirits heading into the ODI series that starts tomorrow.
The BCCI have picked an 18 member squad for the series, to take on the Proteas in their backyard. India would like to take inspiration from the 2018 tour where they outplayed the South Africans in the ODI leg.
There are several players who would be keen to make a mark in the series and get their team the trophy. However, there are 3 players that one must look out for:
3. Quinton de Kock
DeKock has always been an exciting player, one that grabs eyeballs with his destructive batting and efficiency behind the stumps. He is one of South Africa’s most experienced batsmen, somebody whom they look at to provide a solid platform at the start.
However, the pressure on him will be much more than usual given that he is a specialist white ball player now, post Test retirement.
His retirement evoked mixed reactions from the cricketing world with a lot of the pundits feeling that it was a premature decision, one that would affect South Africa cricket deeply.
He would now be eager to prove his dedication to the game and his willingness to continue at the highest level. There is no better way than scoring truckloads of runs against India, a team that he has had considerable success against.
2. Suryakumar Yadav
The Indian middle-order batsman made his International debut only a year back but has already become an indispensable part of the white-ball teams. His ability to play the perfect anchor to an innings, while scoring at a brisk rate is rare in the cricketing world.
Mumbai Indians recently retaining him ahead of Hardik Pandya just goes to show the reliability and confidence that his batting brings to the team. He would be keen to make a mark, this being his first tour to South Africa, in order to make sure he cements the number 4 spot in the lineup.
Suryakumar had a poor IPL 2021 by his own standards and did not really get a lot to do in India’s failed T20 World Cup campaign. He would be keen to make a mark and get back to scoring runs.
1. Venkatesh Iyer
From making his debut in the second phase of the IPL to playing white-ball cricket for India within a span of 5 months, Venkatesh Iyer has been living his dream.
A guy who no one had heard of a year back is now central to India’s limited-overs plans going forward. He is being looked at as the ideal replacement for the injury-prone Hardik Pandya. Iyer impressed one and all with his sheer batting prowess in the IPL. Add to that his ability to bowl yorkers at the death, he is just the kind of cricketer that every team yearns for.
Even though he opened the batting for KKR, he is being groomed as a finisher in the Indian setup, someone who can come out and tonk the ball. On his first overseas tour as an international player, Iyer would face a litmus test of character and technique. All eyes would be on him to see if he sinks or swims in this deep end.
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