South Africa vs India 2018 Test Series - Yet another loss for the Indian cricket fan
So, the dust has settled after the Freedom Series between India and South Africa. Within a few hours, the players would be seen in coloured clothing. The intimidating fast bowlers who were making the batsmen jump and duck until last week might be reduced to mere side actors. For, in the limited overs cricket, the general norm is for the bat to dominate the ball. So, all that happened in the Test series could be forgotten very soon. But can the Indian Test team afford to forget what happened in the Test series?
Who was the real loser?
Well, the supporters will say that the Indian team did a fabulous job by winning the third Test in trying circumstances at Johannesburg. I also do have great respect for what the team did in the third Test. On the other hand, the critics would say that India was clearly lagging behind the Proteas as shown by the scoreline of 2-1. But in between this debate, I feel that the real loser after the series was the loyal fan of Indian cricket. Now, don't get me wrong that I am for a moment suggesting that the Indian cricketers didn't feel the pinch of the loss.
But, the fan who had for years been waiting for a series win in South Africa was yet again left disappointed. Series after series, the faithful Indian cricket fan has just been hoping for a Test series win outside the subcontinent. Before every series, there is a hype as to how this is going to be the series which will change history. But sadly, the results have revealed a different story.
For the record, the last Test series win outside the subcontinent (if we leave aside the wins against the lowly ranked West Indies) was against New Zealand in 2008/09. That's like almost a decade without a series win outside the subcontinent. The counter-argument has been that teams like Australia, South Africa, England and New Zealand also struggle when they are in India. But then, when you are the number one side in Test matches (as the Indian team is currently); one would expect better results.
Everyone said that this was the best chance of a series victory
And this time around even the experts had said that this is India’s best chance of winning a Test series in the land of Nelson Mandela. Prior to the series, even Indian team’s vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane had said, “We do have the best chance to win the series”. It is another matter that by the time Rahane got a chance to play, the series was already lost. (Rahane was dropped for the first two Tests)
Positives from the series
The skipper and the coach did try to put a brave face and mentioned the positives that came out of the series. I don’t blame them for that since there were some positives indeed. The fact that spinners (read Ashwin) took only 7 wickets out of the 60 South African wickets to fall, speaks volume of the Indian attack. With 15 wickets, Mohammed Shami was the joint highest wicket-taker in the series.
The other heartening aspect was the resolve shown by the batsmen in the third Test on a pitch which raised quite a few eyebrows. As the great Sunil Gavaskar wrote in a column, “That display by the Indian batsmen should once and for all shut the mouths of those who feel the Indian batsmen lack the courage to play fast bowling”.
So, what went wrong?
Now, you might be wondering if all this was good, then what went wrong? The answer lies in the statement which coach Ravi Shastri made. He had said, that the result could have been different if more preparation time was given. In my opinion, he was spot on. But as a fan, my only worry is that we have been hearing this time and again.
Excuses like lack of preparation time and insufficient practice games seem as old as my career as a cricket fan. After every series, we hear such phrases and hope that things will be different for the next tour. But then cricket moves on and we fans get back to our day to day lives. In between, the Indian team performs well in limited over series and we tend to forget everything.
I just hope that things will be a bit different when the Indian team plays a Test series next time outside the subcontinent. This year does offer plenty of opportunities to set the record straight. Till that happens and irrespective of whether a team gets sufficient preparation time, fans like me will prepare for another overseas test series with stats to support our hypothesis of an Indian series victory.