new delhi: India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate is hoping that his batters have learnt lessons from the rare series-defeat at home against New Zealand last year as the hosts get ready to take on spin-heavy Proteas in the two-Test rubber starting Friday.
Armed with a potent spin attack, taking on South Africa seems like competing against a “subcontinent team”, Ten Doeschate said, admitting that they need to get better at negotiating the challenge posed by tweakers. South Africa’s recent Test series in Pakistan saw their spin quartet of Keshav Maharaj, Simon Harmer, Senuran Muthusamy and Prenelan Subrayen take 35 wickets to draw the two-match series 1-1.
“They have got four (three specialist) spinners at their disposal. Most likely they will play three and it is a little bit like playing against a subcontinent team,” Ten Doeschate said during a media interaction ahead of the opening Test.
The Proteas arrive with a balanced attack in both pace and spin. If Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen spearhead the pace department, they have three specialist spinners in Maharaj, Simon and Muthusamy.
Harmer (13), Muthusamy (11), and Maharaj (9) shared 33 wickets among them in two Tests. Muthusamy also scored 106 runs and was named Player of the Series. “You normally worry about the pace attack first and I am pretty sure they will go with two seamers and three if not four spinners. But that is also the challenge when you are playing in the subcontinent.
“Something as a team that we need to get better at. We addressed it early on. We have come up short a few times. So it is a great challenge.”
The concern seems valid as India had endured an unprecedented 0-3 home defeat to New Zealand exactly a year back. The collapse came largely against spin, as Ajaz Patel (15), Mitchell Santner (13) and Glenn Phillips (8) shared 36 wickets between them. “Hopefully we have learned from the New Zealand series. We have put some plans into place against how to play the spin. It is going to be so important over these two games. Particularly how well they did in Pakistan about four weeks ago.” He further hailed South Africa’s overall development and the quality of their attack, and said the visitors deserve credit for how they have rebuilt into a formidable side in all conditions.
“They deserve a lot of credit for how they have gone about their work in the last 9-10 months. The position they have found themselves in the World Test Championship, they have shown that they are a quality team -- to beat Australia in the final...,” he said.