Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes that the Test series against South Africa under Virat Kohli will be the Test skipper’s first big and serious challenge. However, ahead of that the limited-over series will be crucial for India, as it will showcase which players will do well going forward into the Test series. India play three Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) and five One-Day Internationals (ODIs) before playing four Tests against South Africa. In his column for Times of India, Gavaskar wrote, “The South Africa tour of India provides the Indian team under Virat Kohli with its first serious challenge. True, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is in charge of the limited-overs teams and those games are to be played before the four Test matches start in November, but at the back of everybody’s mind is how will the Indian team fare against the top-ranked Test team in the world.” India vs South Africa 2015: Hosts cannot boast of an enviable record in T20Is
“The South Africans have generally done well in India, as they have the balance to their teams that most touring teams lack. This time, though, their spin quality is pretty much unknown and that can often be decisive on the Indian pitches as England showed in their excellent Test series win in 2012.” VVS Laxman: India-South Africa T20I series can be a mouth-watering prospect
“However, the focus right now is on the limited-overs series and these games become important because it will give the Indian players a good workout and tell us which player is playing well for the Test series to follow. Since the players for the three formats are pretty much the same, early form will be crucial and it will give the players belief and confidence when the Test matches come along,” he added. ICC World T20 2016 looming in horizon gives T20I series greater context
Gavaskar states that the limited-overs will be a good time for batsmen like Kohli to figure out their persistent weakness and work on them, so that it won’t be a problem in the Test series. MS Dhoni vs Faf du Plessis: A comparison of two captains
“Kohli, for example, will need to look at the old weakness of poking outside the off-stump that got him into serious trouble in England, and as we saw in Sri Lanka, he still is a bit tentative in that area especially at the start of his innings. Shikhar Dhawan has announced in emphatic fashion that he is back to full fitness with his century against Bangladesh ‘A’ and that is good news because he is just the kind of batsman that India will need to tackle the late swing of Dale Steyn.” Is this Proteas side the weakest ever to tour India?
Speaking about Dale Steyn, Gavaskar said, “Steyn’s out-swingers are lethal to the right-handers and if the left-handed Dhawan can take most of the strike, it will help India enormously to nullify Steyn’s threat to a great extent and get off to a good start. Mind you, Steyn is not a one trick bowler and he will certainly have plans for the Indian batsmen.”
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