IND vs SA: South Africa haven’t won a Test match in India in the last 15 years, but they are quite eager to end this streak in the Test series against India, as per Keshav Maharaj, who called it one of their toughest tours.
India will lock horns with South Africa for a two-match Test series, which will begin later this week in Kolkata and Guwahati.
Talking about how challenging it will be, Maharaj, in an interaction, revealed, “There’s a real hunger and desire within the camp to beat India in India. It’s probably one of the toughest tours, if not the toughest in the Proteas calendar, for the various generations that have come (here).
“We feel like it’s one of our biggest tests. And it will be a wonderful opportunity to grade ourselves, to see how far we’ve come slowly. We have started to conquer other parts of the subcontinent. And I feel like this is one assignment that we really, really want to take”.
South Africa, which has been one of the most consistent teams in the longest format over the last few years, hasn’t won a Test series in India since 2015.
Spin To Win In IND vs SA
Maharaj also admitted that the surfaces in India are not going to be that spinner-friendly, unlike Pakistan, where pitches were spin-friendly, which helped them to level the series after losing the series opener.
“I don’t think it will be as spin-friendly as we experienced in Pakistan. I think it will be good wickets that will deteriorate as the game goes on. So, probably, more of your traditional Test wickets from what we see,” he said.
“I think if you watched a bit of the West Indies series, it was good wickets that went almost to day four and five. So, I do believe that the sort of narrative is changing in terms of getting wickets. They (India) are a wonderful team, and they’ve come a long way, especially with the transition that they have had. I would think that they want to go with good cricket wickets, just judging from the West Indies series,” he added.
During their last two Test series in India, the visitors witnessed players like R Ahwin and Ravindra Jadeja dominate on these pitches.
Maharaj also revealed that they will aim to repeat their heroics from the series against Pakistan.
“We are carrying a bit of momentum from Pakistan in that second Test, (where) we showed that regardless of the toss, we’re still going to fight and try to force the result in our way. “I think there’s a real precision about how we’ve gone about our business throughout this cycle so far, and in the previous cycle,” he concluded.