All things on track, barring one
During their 2014 tour of England, India finished 3-1 winners in the ODI series. It was the first time since 1990 that they had won a bilateral ODI series in the country. With the World Cup (in Australia-New Zealand) just six months away, it was an affirmation of India’s plans for big prize (where they finished as semi-finalists).
Since then, India have won bilateral series in the 50-over format away from home only in West Indies and Sri Lanka. They have beaten Australia and New Zealand (twice) on home soil too. In fact, before their tour of South Africa began, the men in blue were unbeaten in eight successive bilateral ODI series. Yet, their win in the ongoing South Africa series stands out as a crowning glory.
This unbeaten run in the 50-over format has now extended to nine bilateral contests. This is also the first-ever ODI series win on South African soil. Yes, no Indian team has managed this feat despite regular tours since 1992-93. But these factoids matter little in the larger scheme of things. Like the aforementioned England tour, this victory, too, underlines India's plans for the 2019 World Cup.
Playing wrist-spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal together in the same eleven was on top of the team’s to-do list. A return of 30 wickets in five matches (at the time of writing) is a big affirmative check.
A settled bowling line-up doing the business: check. Hardik Pandya growing in stature as the third pacer/fifth bowler/balancing allrounder: check. A top-heavy batting line-up firing on all cylinders: check.
For India, this series will be remembered in the sense that nothing really went wrong. Weirdly enough, pitches rolled out for this series suited the visitors more than the home team. Arguably, only the Wanderers pitch at Johannesburg for the fourth ODI resembled a true South African wicket with ample pace and bounce. The fact that Indian spinners found enough turn and grip in Durban, Centurion, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town was exasperating for the hosts.
Of course, it hasn't all been about the pitches. Ricky Ponting scored 283 runs in a sevenmatch series (in 2001-02) in this country. It has taken 16 years for that record to be broken, with Virat Kohli scoring 429 runs in five matches already, inclusive of two hundreds and a half-century at an average of 143. This isn’t just a run of good form, for Kohli's current prowess in the limited-overs arena transcends what is humanly thought possible.
Add to it the runs scored by Shikhar Dhawan, who has hit another purple patch, as well as Rohit Sharma's well-timed hundred in the fifth ODI, and India out-batted and outbowled South Africa completely. If there is one contest that the Proteas did manage to win, it was the death-overs battle when their pace attack was able to showcase India's one continuous weakness.
In five matches, the Indian middle-order has contributed only one half-century, coming off the blade of Ajinkya Rahane. He returned to the number four spot after nearly two years, and despite starting off well, inconsistency has once again returned to his game. That has reflected in the rest of the middle-order as well.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni has looked scratchy. Shreyas Iyer has got starts in both matches he has played but failed to capitalise. Pandya has scored 26 runs in four innings in this ODI series. Kedar Jadhav, when fit, was included in the playing eleven more as a sixth bowling option than a lower-order batsman.
The slow nature of pitches is one of the reasons attributed to this downturn. With the toporder doing well and essentially eating out 3035 overs every game, the middle- order has been forced to bat at a high tempo most of the time. This tendency of the Indian batting to rely mostly on Kohli, Dhawan and Sharma wasn't exposed nearly enough by the beleaguered South African team.
In a comprehensive series win, this limitation has been highlighted as the one area that needs to be worked on as India continue to build up to the 2019 World Cup, albeit in a good sense.