Legendary South Africa all-rounder Jacques Kallis feels that it won’t be an easy task for the Indian team to beat the Proteas side in the upcoming two-match Test series. Despite being one of the most consistent sides in Test cricket over the years, India have not beaten South Africa away from home in the Test series. Rohit Sharma and Co. will look to end the 31-year drought which the previous Indian teams failed to do. Meanwhile, the last time India toured South Africa, the series ended 2-1 in the hosts’ favour as India failed to continue the momentum despite winning the series opener.
India will be playing series in all three formats on the Proteas tour but the focus will be on the two Test matches, which are part of the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.
The stars from both sides – Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Kagiso Rabada will only be playing the traditional format during the series.
“This is a good Indian team but South Africa is tough to beat in South Africa. Centurion will probably suit South Africa and Newlands will probably suit India. It will be a good series and it will come down to one or two sessions that one team might play better than the other. It would be a closely fought contest,” Kallis told PTI.
The Proteas great also talked about the transitional phase in Indian cricket as the average age in the team is in the mid-30s, with skipper Rohit Sharma being 36 years old and star batter Virat Kohli – 35. In the bowling department, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are 37 and 35 respectively while Mohammed Shami 33.
There would be a transition sooner or later in another couple of years and Kallis feels that if talented youngsters are groomed by keeping them with the senior team, the handing of baton becomes easier.
“Older players obviously have got the knowledge and you would combine that with younger players. That’s the job of coaches and selectors to make sure so that even if younger players might not be playing, they are in that environment where they can learn from the older players,” said Kallis, who scored 45 Test hundreds in his illustrious 18-year career in which he played 166 Tests.
It is imperative that youngsters are travelling to unfamiliar territories and soaking in all knowledge available watching those who have been there and done that.
“(They should) travel to these parts of the world that they are probably not used to and learn from sitting on the side, try to pick up as much knowledge as possible and play those warm-up games where big players are resting for. Picking up knowledge helps a lot and transition when a few players are retiring, it becomes little bit easier,” he elaborated.
Having started his career in mid-90s just when players like Kepler Wessels, Peter Kirsten, Andrew Hudson had all retired or were on verge of retirement, Kallis felt that back in the day, Proteas had a good system of changeover in place.
“Certainly, when I started, South Africa were very good at transitioning younger players into good international players and that obviously needs to be done when senior players retire,” he added.
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