5 reasons why South Africa could suffer a whitewash in the Test series

The Indian team walks off the field after winning the 1st TestIt was just the start that South Africa did not want to their 4-match Test series against India. A dusty pitch, an in-form trio of spinners, some attacking captaincy and a poor batting display by the Proteas batsmen proved to be the perfect recipe for disaster. With the home team gaining the upper hand after the first bout, the visitors need to pull up their socks and fast or else the world’s No. 1 Test team might as well suffer a degrading whitewash. Here are 5 reasons why we think that this may be on the cards:

#1 More turning pitches on the horizon

Imran Tahir liked what he saw on the Mohali pitch. Unfortunately, the South African batsmen didn’t

Rarely has a pitch in Mohali behaved in the manner that it did in the 1st Test of the India-South Africa series. It started to turn prodigiously from Day 1 and most batsmen from both sides struggled to get runs on the board.

With Indian skipper Virat Kohli and team director Ravi Shastri advocating the preparation of pitches which suit India’s core strength, which is spin bowling, there is every chance that the ones in Bangalore, Nagpur and Delhi will also be on the same lines.

Considering the poor technique shown by the visiting batsmen on a rank turner, they may not fare too well in the rest of the series also unless they are able to bring about a drastic change in approach.

#2 Even De Villiers and Amla are struggling to read the ball

AB de Villiers is bowled as he fails to read a googly from Amit Mishra

Perhaps the greatest setback for the South African team came when the Indian spinners made a mockery out of their batting pillars, AB de Villiers and skipper Hashim Amla, particularly in the 2nd innings. While Amla got out bowled shouldering arms to a delivery which was coming in from left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, De Villiers got outfoxed by an Amit Mishra googly which took the inside edge off his bat before uprooting the off stump.

In the 1st innings too, it was a similar story although both batsmen did manage to get some runs under their belt. We know that both AB and Amla are very good players, but if they keep failing to judge balls correctly and don’t get the big hundreds, South Africa may not have enough runs on the board throughout the series to trouble the Indians.

#3 The roaring form of the Indian spinners

The South African batsmen were clueless against the Indian spin trio at Mohali

The Indian spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra wreaked havoc in the South African camp in the 1st Test by claiming 19 out of the 20 wickets which fell for the visitors. The three of them ensured that the opposition batsmen managed a match aggregate of only 293 with as many as 13 wickets falling for single digit scores.

Ashwin seems to have climbed up to a different league altogether and should soon be rubbing shoulders with the best tweakers to have played the game. Meanwhile, Jadeja made a stirring comeback to the Test team after a flurry of wickets in the ongoing Indian domestic season. Last but not the least, Amit Mishra has got a new lease of life under Test skipper Virat Kohli and is making it count with every passing game by getting the wickets of big players.

Taking into account the rich vein of form the Indian spinners are in, the picture does not look too good for South Africa unless they can pull off a remarkable fightback.

#4 India\'s dominance at home in the recent past

India hold the upper hand everytime they play Test cricket in their own backyard

There are hardly any doubts about the fact that Team India have been extremely dominant at home in the recent past. They have won 6 out of the 7 Test series that they have played at home in the last 5 years.

Although South Africa’s performance in India has been more than decent compared to some of the other teams, the scenario has changed a lot in Indian cricket since they were last here. During their last visit, they encountered flatter pitches and a weaker spin attack which included a less effective Harbhajan and an out of sorts Amit Mishra and so they managed to leave with the series level at 1-1.

India’s batting may not be of the same calibre as it was at that point, however, the spin attack has become stronger with the wily Ashwin taking over the mantle of the lead spinner, a deceptive Jadeja being his ideal foil on turning tracks and a rejuvenated Mishra providing excellent backup.

Also, the emphasis on producing pitches which are conducive to the spinners is more than it was ever before. A combination of these factors makes the job to escape a whitewash extremely tough for the Proteas.

#5 South Africa\'s main weapon has been rendered toothless

Steyn looked out of sorts at Mohali and is an injury doubt for the second match

No matter where South Africa play around the cricketing world, their chief weapon has always been one of their most successful fast bowlers ever, Dale Steyn. Moreover, Steyn has been the best overseas bowler in the sub-continent with around 90 wickets for him in these conditions.

In the 1st Test, however, Steyn looked far from effective in the 1st innings and to add to it, he could not even make it out to the field during India’s 2nd innings. With speculations rife about him missing out on the next Test in Bengaluru, South Africa may already be staring at trouble.

Although they do have a good replacement in Morne Morkel, it is difficult to put him in the same league as Steyn. The leader of the Proteas bowling attack has also played a lot of cricket in his IPL career at this venue as part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise and they could have benefitted from his knowledge about the pitch at the Chinnaswamy.

Steyn has been toothless to some extent on the tour to India so far but has the calibre to bounce back as he has done in the past on countless occasions. However, doubts about his fitness may not help in South Africa’s cause of registering a comeback in the series and pushes them further towards the possibility of a whitewash.