South Africa vs India Test series 2013-14: 7 things Team India learned on this tour

As India’s tour of South Africa draws to a close, it’s only fair to state that India have put up a spirited performance in the Test series against the no.1 ranked Test side. Since the batting performance during the ODI series was largely an aberration, very few would have put their money on the likes of Kohli, Pujara and Vijay to come up with such a splendid show with the bat in the Test series.

Win or lose, there are always positives and negatives to come out of any tournament, and from India’s perspective, they have a mixed bag of conspicuous commodities that need to be addressed before the tours of New Zealand, England and Australia come thick and fast during 2014. Here is a list of seven significant talking points to come out of the Test series against South Africa for India:

Murali Vijay could well be a long-term Test opener for India

Murali Vijay needs to be given the due credit for the way he has blunted the venom that Dale Steyn & co. possess at the top of the batting order. His scores of 6 & 39 in the first Test match of the series at the Wanderers might not seem significant, but the amount of time he spent in the middle and number of deliveries he consumed, made the task of Kohli and Pujara that bit more easier.

To be fair to him, not many would have expected Vijay to come up with such a pertinent batting style for the conditions that prevail in the rainbow nation, but his technique and presence in the middle has been a calming influence for the dressing room.

Where does Murali Vijay go from such a beautiful show in an overseas Test series? Well, he has probably stuffed the mouths of his detractors, and from what I believe, he has earned himself a permanent Test spot for at least another year.

Kudos, Vijay!

Retirement of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman hasn’t been felt

Yes, I am indeed referring to the current no.3 & no.4 of the Indian batting lineup – Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli.

Pujara does possess the technique that is tailor-made for the longer version of the game, but his unflappable demeanor is what makes him that bit more special. Never do you see fear in his eyes, a false-shot in anger, or the effect of pressure getting to him during various stages of a Test match. The importance of this Test series for Pujara can’t be underlined enough, and there’s a lot of confidence to take out of his performance as far as Pujara goes. Maybe, another ‘wall of Indian cricket’ in the making.

Virat Kohli, just like Sachin Tendulkar, has made his bat do the talking and his hunger for runs just keeps mounting with each passing game. His 119 in the first innings of the Johannesburg Test match was of significant importance from the team’s perspective, and the manner in which he counter-attacked after the fall of two early wickets was great to see. The 96 that he made in the 2nd innings was close to perfect, but I felt that there was some kind of negativity attached towards the latter part of that knock, which subsequently led to his undoing.

As a testimony to the performances of these two, Team India hasn’t quite felt the retirements of the massive trio that held fort for India during all these years.

India’s middle and lower-middle order has proved to be futile

Albeit the Indian top order comprising of Vijay, Dhawan, Pujara and Kohli have managed to do justice to their roles, the middle and lower-middle order haven’t put up crucial runs at the rear of the Indian innings on all 3 occasions thus far.

Rohit Sharma went to South Africa with exorbitant amount of runs behind him against the visiting Australian and West Indian sides, but a complete failure in both the Test and ODI series against the Proteas could well reignite the questions that were asked of him prior to the aforementioned tournaments.

His nature of dismissals have been rather horrendous. A wild slash to a ball well outside the off-stump in the 1st innings of the Johannesburg Test match showed his attitude, and trying to leave a ball that was darting into middle stump in the first innings of the 2nd Test match at Durban was abominable to watch as well. And there’s no skepticism on my part that Rohit should take the blame for the Indian middle order’s failure in the 2 match Test series.

Barring Ajinkya Rahane’s grit and determination to guts it out midst some hostile fast bowling, Indian middle-order batting (MS Dhoni included) is proving to be futile and fortunately, hasn’t paid the price for it.

Team India need to address this quickly, if they have ambitions of winning overseas. You just can’t keep crumbling to 14/5 and 16/5 on a consistent basis and expect to get away with it.