Proteas' home dominance versus India's slow rise: Has the South African press been over-aggressive?

India was the first team to tour South Africa in 1992-93 post the apartheid regime

India makes history in South Africa

All's well that ends well. Team India has wrapped up the T20 series 2-1.

After a month and a half (50 days to be precise), India's South African safari ended on a victorious note. Team India had finally breached the South African wall but failed to make a complete conquest.

The lost Test battle seems to be a distant memory now, drowned by the euphoria of subsequent victories in the shorter and the shortest formats of the game. Many will argue that the true measure of superiority in the game of cricket has to do with a team's performance in the five-day format.

Yet, Virat Kohli's team have managed to do what all of their predecessors could not. The Indian team won a one-day series in South Africa for the first time and comprehensively so.

History has been made for sure, but a peek into the past is quite essential to understand the enormity of this achievement.

Jimmy Cook and Hudson come out to bat in the Durban Test against India

The historic 1992-93 series

Not many cricketers make their international Test debut at 39! Yet, this was precisely the age when Jimmy Cook of South Africa faced his first ball in an international Test match.

The ban on South Africa following the atrocities of the apartheid regime meant that an entire generation (and more) of immensely talented South Africans could not play international cricket for their country.

Cook's Test debut was not exactly sensational. Opening for South Africa in the first innings of the first Test, he faced Kapil Dev and was out caught by India's Little Master, Sachin Tendulkar. His career lasted just two years, but Cook recalled, in interviews since, that he was lucky to have played some international cricket after all.

India had the "privilege" to be the first international cricket team to be invited to South Africa as a reward for the Indian board's support for South Africa's return to the international fold. India had also been the first country to host South Africa after their international exile. The above factors made this tour historic and memorable.

Captained by Mohammad Azharuddin, India's performance on the field, however, was not quite so commendable.

The first two Test matches ended in a draw and South Africa's Allan Donald blew India away with 12 wickets in the third Test at Port Elizabeth, helping his side win the Test series 1-0. In the ODI series, South Africa steamrolled India 5-2 in a seven-match series.

Sachin, Sourav, Rahul, Dhoni: Unable to conquer the Proteas at home

Sachin Tendulkar captained India in the 1997 tour to South Africa and Saurav Ganguly led India in 2001-02. The first win, however, came in the first Test in Johannesburg in the 2006-07 series with Rahul Dravid as captain. India lost the series 1-2.

MS Dhoni led India to South Africa twice. In 2010-11, the Test series was level at 1-1 and in 2013-14, India lost 0-1

India, however, had never won a single ODI series in South Africa until Virat Kohli's team made history.

Is South Africa perturbed by India's ascendancy?

How does the South African press perceive the present Indian cricket team and their performance against the Proteas?

Debating India's No 1 spot: What the South African press says

"South Africa out-thought, out-fought, out-batted, out-bowled and out-fielded Test cricket’s No 1 Test team here over four and a bit days."

The above is a report from a Pretoria newspaper published on January 17, 2018, after the hosts won the second Test and with it the Test series. The report is titled, "Proteas revenge over India even sweeter on difficult Centurion pitch."

The first line seems accurate enough but as one reads further one cannot help noticing the aggressive and rather defiant nature of the report.

"The South Africans had been waiting on this series for more than two years, to gain revenge for the 3-0 loss in India, on pitches - certainly in two of the Tests that spun viciously and in the case of Nagpur was described as poor by the International Cricket Council."

Alas, just a few days after this article was written, the Wanderers pitch was rated "poor" by the ICC and almost led to an abandonment. Funnily enough, the home side seemed to be more perturbed about the state of the wicket than the visitors.

No 1 in Tests and ODIs: Can they maintain the winning streak?

The report goes on to say, "Worldwide too, there is the feeling that India’s No 1 ranking has been achieved because they’ve played at home almost exclusively."

"India’s world record-equaling run of nine consecutive Test series wins was achieved with seven of those series’ being played at home - the other two wins came in Sri Lanka and the West Indies in conditions very similar to what India has at home."

The article starts off lauding the home team for beating "Test cricket's No 1 team" and then goes on to argue that the same team, in their opinion (and allegedly the "rest of the world's" as well) does not really deserve to be on top of the heap!

The last paragraph of the article reads, "India has not won a Test series in South Africa or Australia, where they tour later in the year, ever. In this country, they have won just two out of 19 Tests across 26 years. Kohli joins a long list of great players from that country who has led teams that have failed here. Given the optimism he had, the belief, this is a loss that will hurt - a lot."

The elation of the hosts did not last long as India beat South Africa comprehensively in the one-day series, something the Proteas would not have expected in the least following the euphoria of the Test series.

To get a better perspective on how historic India's win in the ODI and T20 series is, let's read up another snippet from an article published in 2010-11 during the Indian tour to South Africa under MS Dhoni.

The South African press on India's rise in 2010-11

MS Dhoni led India twice to South Africa (2010-11 and 2013-14)

The article below titled, "Get ready for a series to savor", describes India's effort in the 2006-07 series against South Africa.

Dated December 10, 2010, the article reads, "The skies were moody grey and there was moisture in the air, not rain but the kind of heavy humidity for which Durban is renowned. Virender Sehwag slashed at his first ball and was caught at second slip."

"It was the second Test of India’s tour three years ago and the Proteas won it to square the series after an embarrassing display in the first Test at the Wanderers. They won the decider, too, on a dramatic final day at Newlands to make it four series wins out of four against India on South African soil since the “Friendship Tour” of 1992/1993."

"It may be grossly unfair to single out Sehwag for criticism given that no Indian batsmen in the preceding 15 years barring, perhaps, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar, had looked at ease against fast bowling on South African pitches, but he looked particularly stomachless when it came to the fight. So much so that he was removed from the top of the order and hidden at number seven for the third Test (from where he threw his wicket away once again on 40)."

Quoting Gary Kirsten (Indian coach for the series) the article says, “It’s no secret that in the past some Indian teams and players have been more concerned with their individual glory and success than that of the group but that has changed to the opposite extreme in the last 12 or 18 months,” Kirsten said. “The guys all know that they are number one in the world because they are a team, not a collection of talented individuals.”

The question below is then asked to Gary Kirsten:

"Apart from the great Australian team of the late 1990s and early 2000s, no touring team has ever arrived on these shores as favourites. Could this Indian team be regarded as such?"

“Absolutely ridiculous, of course not,” says Kirsten. “They have the chance to become one of the greatest Indian teams ever if they can win here, but they are going to have to dig as deep— deeper, probably — as they have ever done before. All of those moments of pain will have to be confronted and everyone will have to think of the team before they decide how they are going to react.”

The above article helps shed light on the importance the South Africans attach to preserving their dominance at home and their unwavering faith that the same is under no threat from Team India.

India's recent performance will no doubt sow seeds of doubt in this regard and dent South Africa's confidence to some degree.

So, is Kohli's side the best ever in overseas conditions?

The greatest ever Indian side abroad?

Team India seem too heavily dependent on their skipper

While the pacers performed creditably in South African conditions, picking up 20 wickets in all the games of the Test series, they failed to play a match-winning role. Failing to deliver the knock-out punch when South Africa were 9/3 on the first day of the first Test proved costly.

India's fast bowling attack is arguably the best we have had in some time but failed to extract the pace and bounce off the wicket as their South African counterparts did.

The spinners won the ODI series for India, but cannot be expected to do the same in Test matches in England in a few months' time. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, and Jasprit Bumrah will have to adapt to English conditions fast.

Excessive dependence on Virat Kohli can prove to be India's undoing in the future, with no other batsmen performing consistently.

A few shortcomings apart, the Indian cricket team have rewritten history in the true sense of the term which will hopefully make the world reconsider their rather skeptical view of India's recent superiority in the world of cricket.