Table of Contents
NEW DELHI: South Africa have not won a Test match in India for 15 years, but spinner Keshav Maharaj believes there is “real hunger and desire” within the camp to end that streak in the upcoming series. He described the India tour as one of the toughest assignments in international cricket.
India and South Africa will meet in a two-match Test series starting November 14, with Kolkata and Guwahati hosting the contests.
A massive challenge ahead
Acknowledging the scale of the task, Maharaj said during an online interaction, “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.”
He added, “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 want to take.”
Despite being one of the most consistent Test sides in recent years, South Africa failed to win a single Test in their last two series in India, in 2015 and 2019.
Expecting traditional wickets
Maharaj said he does not expect spin-dominant tracks this time around, unlike the conditions in Pakistan where spinners dictated terms.
“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 — probably more of your traditional Test wickets,” he said.
He pointed to India’s recent home series against West Indies as an example. “I think if you watched a bit of the West Indies series, it was good wickets that went almost to day four and five. I do believe that the sort of narrative is changing in terms of getting wickets. They are a wonderful team and they’ve come a long way with the transition they’ve had. I would think they want to go with good cricket wickets.”
In their previous two tours to India, South Africa struggled against R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who dominated on turning tracks.
Momentum from Pakistan
Maharaj said South Africa would take confidence from their performance in Pakistan earlier this year.
“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 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 added.
(With PTI Inputs)
