Team India & family to land in Mumbai early morning tomorrow after disappointing 40-day African safari – Sources

Team India have taken off from Johannesburg today afternoon and will land in Mumbai tomorrow early morning, sources close to the Indian team told Sportskeeda. It was one of their most forgettable tours of South Africa as the visitors first lost the Test series 1-2 before being whitewashed 0-3 in the ODIs.

When Virat Kohli and Co. touched down in Johannesburg on December 16, all the talk was about conquering the final frontier. It began on expected terms as they won a Test at SuperSport Park in Centurion for the very first time.

But as the year turned, things went from being hunky-dory to humiliating. They lost the next two Tests by huge margins of seven wickets each, and couldn’t quite recover for the white-ball leg too. While the Proteas comprehensively won the first two ODIs in Paarl – by 31 runs and seven wickets, respectively – India came neck-and-neck in the third one before eventually falling short by four runs.

The sojourn also coincided with Virat Kohli – India’s most successful Test captain – abdicating his last position of authority. No longer the ODI and T20I captain, the 33-year-old on January 15 announced he’ll step down from Test captaincy as well.

Meanwhile, the flight back to India will provide much-needed relief to everyone from stringent protocols. After being in a pre-departure bio-bubble in Mumbai for four days, the entire cohort was confined to just hotel rooms, buses and stadiums for 40 days. All players and support staff will fly back to their respective home states from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji airport.

Not only did stand-in captain KL Rahul hint at the toll bio-bubbles take on individuals, the team's performance towards the latter stages also echoed similar sentiments. The ODI squad, though, flew in only on January 12.

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“This one-day series has certainly been a good eye-opener for us” – India coach Rahul Dravid

Head coach Rahul Dravid made no bones about the tourists' disappointing performance, stating that the three-match ODI series will help dictate terms in the lead-up to the 2023 World Cup. He seemed determined to use the upcoming white-ball series to plug the holes which were badly exposed in the Rainbow Nation.

“This one-day series has certainly been a good eye-opener for us. We have not played a lot of one-day cricket. Obviously it’s my first stint with the one-day side, but even the team hasn’t played a lot of one-day cricket since the last World Cup. And luckily, I think, we’ve got a fair bit of time before the World Cup next year.

"And you know, it’s going to be a lot of cricket from now till then in the white-ball formats. I think it’s going to be a good opportunity for us to really reflect and learn and look to keep improving and get better. And yeah, we’ll get better, we’ll improve, there’s no doubt about that,” Dravid said at the post-series press conference.

KL Rahul was India’s leading run-getter in the Test series with 226 runs at an average of 37.67. In the ODI series, 36-year-old Shikhar Dhawan topped the charts with 169 runs at 56.33.

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