India are the favorites, there are question marks over South Africa in terms of adaptability: Morne van Wyk ahead of 5th T20I

After losing the first two T20Is, Team India have made a strong comeback to level the ongoing five-match home series against South Africa at 2-2.

The decider will be played on Sunday at Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the Men in Blue have won only two of their five T20Is.

Playing the must-win fourth match on Friday in Rajkot, India rode comeback man Dinesh Karthik’s maiden T20I fifty (55 off 27 balls) and pacer Avesh Khan’s 4-18 to register an emphatic 82-run win over the Proteas.

After South Africa sent India to bat first, the hosts were struggling at 40-3 in the seventh over and needed the lower-middle order batters to stage a rescue act. However, with stand-in skipper Rishabh Pant’s (17 off 23 balls) dismissal in the 13th over, the onus fell on Hardik Pandya and Karthik to add as many runs as possible, with the scoreboard then reading 81-4.

The duo rose to the occasion and counterattacked with a fifth-wicket partnership worth 65 runs, which helped the hosts post 169-6 in 20 overs. On a surface that had variable bounce, the total proved to be more than enough as not a single South African batter went past the 20-run mark.

Former wicketkeeper-batter Morné van Wyk, who represented South Africa in 17 ODIs and eight T20Is between 2003 and 2015, feels that India are the “favorites” heading into the final T20I. Van Wyk told Sportskeeda exclusively on Saturday:

“India definitely are the favourites. There are question marks over the South African team in terms of adaptability. They’ve been unable to find the winning recipe since the third game and have lost momentum. The surfaces have become slower as the series has progressed, but you should give full credit to the Indian batters for their shot selection in the last two matches.”

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On South Africa's chances in this year's T20 World Cup

The South African T20I team have been on a roll since June 2021, winning 15 of their last 20 games in the shortest format. They bagged four consecutive wins in last year’s T20 World Cup in the UAE, yet failed to advance to the semi-finals from Group 1 due to having an inferior net run rate (NRR) than England and Australia.

The Proteas have a plethora of match-winners in their ranks, ranging from aggressive batters like Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Rassie van der Dussen and Heinrich Klaasen to gun pacers such as Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi. Their spin department, though, looks a bit thin on paper. The likes of Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj have hardly made any impact with the ball in the current series.

So what are South Africa’s chances in this year’s T20 World Cup, scheduled for October and November in Australia? Van Wyk, who in 2015 became the third South African to hit a T20I ton, explained:

“I think South Africa will reach the semi-finals this time. Sunday’s series decider will be huge in terms of confidence. I doubt if this series will have any bearing on the T20 World Cup as the tournament is still three months away. You can’t always rely on Miller’s finishing skills and Rabada’s death bowling. More players need to contribute. As far as our spin attack is concerned, I would say Shamsi is still a match-winner. He’s ranked third in T20Is, but hasn’t been able to make an impact in this series because the Indian batters have tackled him really well.”

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Is Faf du Plessis' international career well and truly over?

Among the players from the Rainbow Nation who plied their trade in the recently concluded edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Faf du Plessis is one of the first names that springs to mind.

The former South African captain was snapped up by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for ₹7 crore in February’s mega auction and was entrusted with leadership responsibilities. Leading with panache and batting with flamboyance at the top of the order, Du Plessis stacked up 468 runs in 16 innings at an average of 31.20 and a strike rate of 127.52.

Although Du Plessis announced his retirement from Test cricket in early 2021, he’s yet to hang up his boots from white-ball formats at international level. Despite scoring a truckload of runs in the IPL and other franchise leagues, he hasn’t featured in the national team since February 2021.

In an interview with ESPNcricinfo last year, Du Plessis lashed out at Cricket South Africa (CSA) for snubbing him and Imran Tahir as they participate in franchise leagues throughout the year. He stated:

“I think they wanted people that are available all the time…So I think that's the challenge now, because we are playing overseas, if they don't want us to play all the games, it's probably an unrealistic expectation."

The swashbuckling batter’s inclusion will surely bolster South Africa’s strength in the T20 World Cup, but how realistic are his chances of making a comeback? According to Van Wyk, Du Plessis is not in the CSA’s scheme of things anymore. He instead expects Rilee Rossouw to be recalled following the abolition of the Kolpak system. The former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) player opined:

“Faf is a great player, but where will South Africa play him? You can’t have him open the batting because Temba Bavuma is doing that. You might consider bringing him in for Rassie van der Dussen, but Rassie has been pretty consistent. I think Faf is now a closed chapter for Cricket South Africa and vice-versa. Rilee Rossouw, meanwhile, has a strong chance of making a comeback. He has scored runs in T20 leagues across the globe.”

After the India tour, South Africa will play three T20Is against England in late July and two against Ireland in early August in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup.

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