3 positives for India from the ODIs vs South Africa
The Indian Cricket Team slumped to the low of an ODI series clean sweep against South Africa on Sunday. Despite being the closest match of the series, the 3rd ODI was won by the hosts who were attacking with the bat and smart with their bowling changes.
Arguably, India did not make the best of the three games to take away adequate learnings from the process. The impressive Ruturaj Gaikwad continued to warm the bench, while Venkatesh Iyer was dropped without much fault of his own. However, the team got a further look at a few players' abilities, including young quick Prasidh Krishna and experienced off-spinner Jayant Yadav.
At the end of the ODI series, questions abound regarding KL Rahul's abilities as a leader, Rahul Dravid's influence as a coach and the selections made by the think tank. Despite these doubts, a few sparks of optimism lingered from the series for India to carry forward and capitalize upon.
Here are three positives for the visitors from the ODI series.
#3 Shikhar Dhawan's fine touch with the bat
India's highest scorer in the three-match rubber, Shikhar Dhawan showed his class in the format with two half-centuries and another decent start in the second ODI. Under some pressure due to his axing from the shortest format and the emergence of Gaikwad, the opener dispatched concerns about his form with silky strokes and a decent strike rate.
With Rahul not in the best form with the bat in the series, Dhawan's positive starts reduced the pressure on former skipper Virat Kohli, who then notched up two fifties of his own. The left-hander also increased the headaches for Temba Bavuma's team by giving them a left-right combination at the crease to bowl at and set fields for.
#2 Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav's counterattacks
While a lot of the talk around Rishabh Pant in the series would focus on his first-ball duck in the final game, his 85 off 71 was crucial for his team to stand a chance in the second ODI.
Notching up his highest ODI score, Pant uniquely got a feel for the conditions and put the opposition spinners under immense pressure. Playing at No. 4 in this series, the wicketkeeper couldn't bring the goods in two games but showed enough counterattacking ability to justify him being given a longer rope at that position.
Playing just the final game of the series, Suryakumar Yadav injected intent into the Indian innings which appeared to drift off track. His adventurous strokeplay and ability to score all around the ground were on display in his knock of 39 off 32. The duo of Pant and Suryakumar seemed to show the way forward for India, particularly in light of Shreyas Iyer's poor returns.
#1 India's lower-order fightbacks
While the middle order's inconsistency and the top order's lack of aggression held India back in all three games, the lower order stood up to provide some respectability to the scoreboard. In the first two games, Shardul Thakur contributed unbeaten innings of 50 and 40, while Deepak Chahar nearly took India home with a superb 54 off 34 balls in the final game.
Both Thakur and Chahar were tried at No. 7, which might seem a tad high for the relatively inexperienced bowlers. When the likes of Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja return to the team, they can expect to bat lower down. However, the duo showed their ability with the bat in a strong sign for the future.
Although not enough to seriously threaten the opposition, there was also some fightback from the blades of Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah. The resilience shown by the lower order and the ability to take each game deep was easily the biggest positive from a disappointing series for India.