Strength to Strength comparison of India vs South Africa

[rkt.india]

1 hour ago, jalebi_bhai said:

The major problem wrt to this tour is our lack of preparation. We're playing 1 warm-up match, 1 BLOODY WARM-UP MATCH. I'd be delighted if we manage to draw this series. 

 

The team is not bad. Our lack of preparation will potentially be the cause of our downfall. 

why couldn't test specialists go early like Aus usually does. They do send their test specialists early.  Likes of Kohli, Vijay, Rahul, Pujara, Rahane, Ishant, Shami, Yadav, BK, Ashwn, Jaddu, Saha and other hopefuls could easily land in SA at lest 15 days early and play 2-3 warmups and get acclimatized to the conditions.  Only Rahane and Bk are playing LOIs and even they could have skipped these LOIs against SL.

[insideedge]

If one goes by past records, then obviously one will find the Indian team wanting. But past records do not always matter. New things happen to those who are prepared to rewrite old records.

 

Those who are rubbishing the overseas playing abilities of Indian batsmen should remember that exactly the same things used to be said about Indian batsmen till 2000. Those old enough will recall that Dravid was considered useless because his overseas record till then was abysmal. He changed all that beginning from 2003. Other Indian batsmen did the same.

 

This Indian team is mentally far stronger than any other Indian teams ever. I am cautiously optimistic that this team will rewrite history in South Africa.

[putrevus]

Our batsmen have to keep them in the game, if they repeat what our Fab four consistently did in SA they will lose.

 

Kohli needs to get more out of fast bowlers.Bowlers cannot run out gas after one innings. It was painful to see Zak, Shami run out of gas after one innings on last tour.

 

They need to last three tests .

[speedheat]

And this is without Hardus velujion and merchant de lenge, two of the most hostile dangerous and fastest bowler's of the world  

[Khota]

I think head to head India has advantage in every dept except for Wkt Keeping. This should be a win for India if the batsman dont crap in their pants.

[jalebi_bhai]

1 hour ago, rkt.india said:

why couldn't test specialists go early like Aus usually does. They do send their test specialists early.  Likes of Kohli, Vijay, Rahul, Pujara, Rahane, Ishant, Shami, Yadav, BK, Ashwn, Jaddu, Saha and other hopefuls could easily land in SA at lest 15 days early and play 2-3 warmups and get acclimatized to the conditions.  Only Rahane and Bk are playing LOIs and even they could have skipped these LOIs against SL.

Bcoz BCCI and common sense don't go hand in hand. We are going almost full strength at home against a Lanka team that lost to Zimbabwe at home 

 

[Masquerade]

I have this sinking feeling that in the upcoming leg of overseas tours we're either going to do really well and impress or do the complete opposite and implode. Don't think there will be much in-between so fingers crossed they make history.

[Forever Indian]

This is what Rohit Sharma did to Steyn in last tour - Leave a ball that swung and crashed into middle stump

 

Couldn't even handle Kallis:

Edited November 30, 2017 by Forever Indian

[gattaca]

Man the amount rohit sharma got probably no one got in history of world cricket. Still ashwin and bhuvi better test bats than rohit. Alteast they know which way ball swings.

[gattaca]

Kaliis was Indias biggest pain we were denied a series win twice by him.with him gone I will fancy more chances for us.

Edited November 30, 2017 by gattaca

[Rasgulla]

Lol rohit sharma vs FAP du  

 

 

[rkt.india]

39 minutes ago, jalebi_bhai said:

Bcoz BCCI and common sense don't go hand in hand. We are going almost full strength at home against a Lanka team that lost to Zimbabwe at home 

 

most of our test specialists in the list above are not even playing ODIs. Only BK and Rahane are the test players that playing ODIs.

[Laaloo]

I think we'll be fine.

[Lannister]

Feel Pandya will be our trump card in bowling. 4 pacers are a must. 

[King Tendulkar]

Rohit won’t even be in starting 11 . Pandya will bat 6

[mishra]

Maniac Bhai's OP is far too optimistic. We are playing away. More often then not our openers will be back in dressing room withing first 50 bowled balls.

[mishra]

Recalculate all the points based on that. And then. Decock will probably average over 50

[sandeep]

9 hours ago, Gollum said:

@maniac, now that you put it this way I too have become somewhat pessimistic. Only silver lining for me is that last 15 years or so we have reserved our best overseas form for SA while SA are somewhat inexplicably vulnerable against us in their backyard. Whilst we haven't won a series there margins have generally been too close to call. On paper SA are clear favorites but like @sandeep pointed out they are vulnerable at this stage and our biggest nemesis Kallis is out of the picture, so hurray for that. I am predicting a very tight series, 2-1 either way or 1-1 draw........this deserved a 4 test series . I am more worried about our catching than any SA player now tbh, if we continue our present catching form there also, we are getting pummeled no matter what.

Biggest worry for me, is the traditional "slow" start by our team.  We often **** the bed against even bad teams in the 1st test of a series.  This one is too short to really recover from.   Apart from that,  I am confident we'll be competitive at worst, and even with a little bit of luck with the toss etc, I think we can win this series.

[sandeep]

11 hours ago, maniac said:

So unless it is an instinct thing or a superstition thing don’t know where you are getting this confidence from??? Is there any tangible argument for this???

Let's call it...........cricket acumen

[sandeep]

7 hours ago, Vk1 said:

I am expecting flat pitches. High scoring draws or results dependent on who wins the toss. If ABD wasn't there India would have had a much better chance of winning. Shami , bhuvi , Ishant will probably outbowl the proteas bowlers. I'm optimistic.

AB's presence means a selection headache for SA.  And a bad one, because the obvious candidate to be excluded is Bavuma, who is black.   So if he's benched, expect internal chaos and strife from the SA board.  If he isn't, there will a lot of pressure on him to justify his selection.   And for all of AB's achievements against the white ball, its not as if he's a bonafide test stud.   If he walks in to the crease with 75/3, he's going to feel the heat just as much as any other guy.   He may be a great "360" hitter of the white ball, but in test cricket, he aint no Tendulkar.   Heck he isn't even a Kallis.