India will be under pressure in SA
On the eve of the second Test against Sri Lanka, Virat Kohli raised a red flag about this home season again. This was widely misconstrued in my opinion. His contention was not so much the amount of cricket being thrust on the players, rather how the assignments have flowed.
Kohli had already spoken about player fatigue before the limited overs series’s against New Zealand some weeks back. There was hardly any need to reiterate this. It is the preparation — or lack of it — for the Test series against South Africa that was his bigger concern.
Conditions in South Africa will be vastly different from those obtained at home. As the itinerary goes, the Indian team fly out just two days after the Sri Lankans leave ( on December 24) and have very little time to acclimatise for the new assignment.
A two- day warm- up match ( December 30- 31) is the only opportunity for practice before the first Test on January 5. True, modern cricket doesn’t provide for many first class matches before and during a Test series ( the Ashes are an exception), but even so, this is meagre.
Dale Steyn is timing his return to Test cricket with this series, and should join Kagiso Rabada and Morne Morkel, both in excellent form. What this means is that the Indian team will be under enormous pressure against a sharp South African pace attack straight up.
India’s batsmen of this, which is why he has been vocal about the travails of the team and how the situation could be improved in the future. He makes a lot of sense and should be heeded.