India will finally win series in South Africa this time around

[Cricketics]

Yes, with all our players in form, we would put South Africa in a situation where they can't win any test from us in that series. It would be a hard fought series which India should win. Still 2 months to go with NZ series left to play, but we should do good in South Africa. Ownage will be the word.

[Rajiv]

I am just concerned with the fitness, lot of cricket in a cramped schedule

[Andy]

:phehehe: Marks my words. It will not be the batters, but the bowlers who can bowl better on green tracks to decide the series. So Saffers have much more advantage over us.

[ZodiaC]

:phehehe: Marks my words. It will not be the batters' date=' but the bowlers who can bowl better on green tracks to decide the series. So Saffers have much more advantage over us.[/quote'] Sreesanth will be deadly in SA conditions :two_thumbs_up: And our batting lineup is far more superior than the Proteas. So it's a huge advantage for us. Ownage time baby B->

[Cricketics]

I am just concerned with the fitness' date=' lot of cricket in a cramped schedule[/quote'] Shoudl be fine i feel. Gambhir is injured rit enow, should be coming back with rest. I won't mind if he rest through the nz series and Vijay gets to play and some others to try bench strength Tendulkar can play the test series with missing odi's. Most of the midlde order players don't even play much cricket barring test. We should be fine hopefully

:phehehe: Marks my words. It will not be the batters' date=' but the bowlers who can bowl better on green tracks to decide the series. So Saffers have much more advantage over us.[/quote'] Batters would make difference hence. Good middle order staying strong and putting runs against competitive saf bowling would be the key Rahul Dravid will be back to show his class.

[Rajiv]

hmm.I prefer Murali now

[b555]

lots of cricket to come an awesome couple of months ahead

[Shane]

If this happens than ticsinder, Sears aake tere saare electronics khaarid loonga

[Andy]

Sreesanth will be deadly in SA conditions :two_thumbs_up: And our batting lineup is far more superior than the Proteas. So it's a huge advantage for us. Ownage time baby B->

Shoudl be fine i feel. Gambhir is injured rit enow, should be coming back with rest. I won't mind if he rest through the nz series and Vijay gets to play and some others to try bench strength Tendulkar can play the test series with missing odi's. Most of the midlde order players don't even play much cricket barring test. We should be fine hopefully Batters would make difference hence. Good middle order staying strong and putting runs against competitive saf bowling would be the key Rahul Dravid will be back to show his class.

Batting will not be easy at all. The momment you score 350 on such tracks you'll have upper hand as on scoring 500 in other tracks. On those kind of tracks you are never in as a batsman, and anytime anything can happen as the pitch is/ will be very lively. Similar things happened in 2006, in the middle of a 50-60 partnership ball jumped off from the Good length and it looked unplayable. So for my money if we can restrict Saffer below 300 every time, we have chance. We did that quite few times in 2006 series and hence won. More than Our batters am counting on our bowlers to do the job. Our batters have never scored tons after Tons as they do in other countries over there. Even the avg. is poor. Starts from Viru will be a deciding factor as well.

[Cricketics]

hmm.I prefer Murali now

Too early to call him the first choice opener. Gambhir has scored runs on regular basis, infact he has been our best test bat in lot of series in past 2 years. Vijay, has looked good. even with minimal chances, he has shown great temperment, and deserves to be applauded for whatever he has achieved in little career of his. Don't know how would all Raina and Pujara would fancy in different conditions, so there will be a time we would see Murali Vijay batting in middle order replacing Raina or even any injured player with Gambhir opening with Sehwag.

[Cricketics]

If this happens than ticsinder' date=' Sears aake tere saare electronics khaarid loonga[/quote'] Sears chor diya yaar. now working for Cellairis.

[Cricketics]

Batting will not be easy at all. The momment you score 350 on such tracks you'll have upper hand as on scoring 500 in other tracks. On those kind of tracks you are never in as a batsman, and anytime anything can happen as the pitch is/ will be very lively. Similar things happened in 2006, in the middle of a 50-60 partnership ball jumped off from the Good length and it looked unplayable. So for my money if we can restrict Saffer below 300 every time, we have chance. We did that quite few times in 2006 series and hence won. More than Our batters am counting on our bowlers to do the job. Our batters have never scored tons after Tons as they do in other countries over there. Even the avg. is poor. Starts from Viru will be a deciding factor as well.

Agree to what you said about batting won't be easy. Thats why i say it will be hard fought series but a great competition between INdian batters and saf bowlers. Our bowlers have done decent in south africa and they will continue to do so i belive. Our batters though need to put on a great show like thye have done in Australia and England in the past. Time to conquer SOUTH AFRICA.

[Manny_Pacquiao]

I am just concerned with the fitness' date=' lot of cricket in a cramped schedule[/quote'] bench strength is decent, so fitness isnt really a worry. india won at perth without zaheer or sreesanth or harbhajan singh. the onlything india cant afford is an injury to someone like tendulkar - who is a lock to score in every game - and an injury to sehwag - who can keep india in the game even in difficult situations when time is running out. and of course dhoni, simply because he is a better keeper than dinesh or parthiv patel. everybody else is replaceable.

[Guest Gunner]

Tics, thanks for opening this thread. I was planning to do it myself as I have been having a strong gut feeling that we will win. The only test where we will be under pressure is Durban, we truly have a terrible record there.

[Andy]

Agree to what you said about batting won't be easy. Thats why i say it will be hard fought series but a great competition between INdian batters and saf bowlers. Our bowlers have done decent in south africa and they will continue to do so i belive. Our batters though need to put on a great show like thye have done in Australia and England in the past. Time to conquer SOUTH AFRICA.

Our bowlers have done well in SA only in 2006. Talking about our batters putting up good shows in Aus and England, yes we did. But conditions are different in SA than other parts of the world. AUS pitchers are Hard bouncy ones. Except for Perth most of the tracks are Good batting tracks with Good bounce for the bowlers and Carry. ENG pitches are never as green where India has featured compared to what we get in SA. In England it swings a Lot. After the First two sessions in a day it can be handled unless its overcast. We'll have to get them out below 300 everytime we go out to bowl in SA. And i expect India to score 350-400 everytime we bat there at our best. Now the point is its usual for a fan to expect us to score 350-400 than getting oppositions out under 300. So for me the bigger headache is our bowling than our batting.

[cowboysfan]

it is definitely possible(irrespective of the pitches).however we need everything to go right(i mean everything).the foremost is get our first 11 healthy and in good form ,if it means resting some players for the kiwi tests then so be it. my ideal playing 11 for south africa - viru Gambhir dravid sachin vvs raina dhoni zak bhajji ishant sree GG should be rested atleast for one or two kiwi tests as he has picked up a lot of injuries .VVs had back problems even in the lankan final test,he needs to be completely healthy or he gets to sit the kiwi series too.we also have to carefully manage our bowling resources as most of our front line bowlers are very injury prone.Mithun should play in the kiwi series.

[Laaloo]

When was the last time ZAK played 2 test series in a row?

[Bumper]

I think winning a series in SA is a bit of a pipe dream at this point, esp with our bowling attack. First of all you cant be sure that our pacers will be fit after the NZ series (three more tests to go). Zaheer by then would have bowled on flat decks for 5 tests in a row. Sreesanth and Zaheer will be the key on SA wickets, as they are more likely to exploit the seam movement the pitches will offer, than Ishant. And second, dont be fooled by our performances at home. Expect a seaming track when we go to SA. That will reduce our batting powers. We will do well to just score 300 each time we go out to bat. I think coming out of SA unscathed (with a drawn series) is a good enough success metric for me.

[kabira]

^Last time we were very close to actually winning the series. Should have drawn the game in Durban with more application from our batters. Then in next game after scoring close to 400 runs, we lost, we should have drawn that game as well. It was flat wicket. It depends where we play our 3 Tests. Any one know the venues?

[Cricketics]

Lastr time around we had VRV singh, who wasn't in great form to bowl, though he batted well :). This time around, if we have Zaheer, Ishant, R.P and Sreesanth all fit and ready to play, it will be a good shot for us.