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In must-win game, India prepare to confront the unknown
A new captain at a new Test venue against the reigning world champions promises to be quite the challenge
Guwahati: India have been here but not done that. Overseas, yes—in England this year, Australia in 2020-21, South Africa as well this New Year’s. At home though, in a series as brief as this? Not since 2010, when they had lost to South Africa in the first Test at Nagpur by an innings and six runs, only to win the second Test at Eden Gardens by an innings and 57 runs.
The coincidence of the opposition won’t be lost on India as they take fresh guard under a new captain in the easternmost Test venue on a pitch that looks good to hold for five days. Neither would be the urgency of winning this game because everything else will consign India to their second home series defeat in just over a year.
They have to pull it off without Shubman Gill, nursing a neck injury that has necessitated rest and further medical assessments. That makes Rishabh Pant India’s fourth Test captain in the last 12 months, a stop-gap arrangement no doubt but nevertheless another element of unknown in a game India would want to guess everything right in.
That South Africa will continue to miss Kagiso Rabada due to a rib injury that he had suffered in Kolkata probably levels the playing field on paper but India by now know what kind of damage Marco Jansen and Simon Harmer can inflict. Add to that the big Lungi Ngidi who has disconcerting pace, and slow-left arm bowler Senuran Muthusamy who South Africa could be inclined to supplant Keshav Maharaj with, and this works out to be a stronger bowling attack even if they drop Corbin Bosch. .
A fundamental change in the surface might prompt these changes. The pitch at Kolkata was of black soil but unusually dry on the pre-match day before behaving off the charts. Guwahati however is expected to play to the subcontinent template of a flat, well-rolled pitch that will hold for the first two days before slowly letting spinners weigh in. The red soil will give it bounce but more encouraging was the grass cover that didn’t look too pruned from Thursday.
“The wicket looks a lot fresher than Kolkata,” South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said. “A little bit more grass on the wicket, so I guess it looks like it’ll play a lot better in terms of the variability of the bounce. I think it’ll be more of a traditional subcontinent wicket. So I think all the fundamentals that come with playing in the subcontinent, first innings becomes crucial from a batting point of view to really set the game up.”
One thing’s certain—batting may still not be easy on a pitch that has never hosted Test cricket. With the starting time pushed up by 30 minutes, expect seamers to get a lot of help from the pitch as well as the nippy conditions in the morning session.
In a big departure, tea will be taken before lunch, meaning there will be two two-hour sessions before the fast fading natural light takes its toll on the third session which will definitely see the floodlights in use to prevent loss of overs. Batters will also have to briefly contend with the shadow of the west stand stretching across the pitch around 3pm, a window fast bowlers could be aiming to exploit.
The series is on the line, so India have to get everything right, starting with picking the right eleven. Pant said the problem of too many left-handed batters will be corrected, dropping the hint that Nitish Kumar Reddy could come in place of Axar Patel.
Reddy’s seam bowling skills and his knack for big runs—he has a hundred at the MCG and is one of the cleanest strikers in the IPL—too are points that might influence the change. It keeps India a six-man bowling attack with three spinners (Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar) to rely on in case a Kolkata-like second-innings shootout is repeated here. The focus is definitely on getting a big first innings score though, and India need all their batters to chime in to make that happen.
Gill’s absence is a blow to those aspirations but India still have B Sai Sudharsan in the squad to fall back on. The messaging hasn’t always been clear, with Sudharsan picked for the England tour and the West Indies Tests at home before being dropped for the Eden Test, but indications are that he might be back on for the ride. He turned up for the optional practice along with Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant but was seen shadowing at on the main pitch, a ritual Sudharsan normally practises before a game.
Left or right, at the end of the day, India have to nail the basics to level this series at Guwahati. That’s what Pant is aiming for as well.
“How I see the game, how we want to play as a team, that’s the kind of conversation we’re having in the group,” he said. “And we just want to keep it simple. Sometimes, yes, big occasions are there. But at the same time, if you think about that too much, you’re putting undue pressure. Which we don’t want as a team. We want to focus on the control level. And we’re going to play better.”
