Can South Africa build on their encouraging start?

Dat, does it show how good Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are or how poorly other sides play when they visit?

I mean even when south africa had steyn ,amla and occasionally abd they lost the last 3 series in asia against lanka and india. They were even coming into india series of 2015 being number 1 and winning series abroad regularly. Even good teams like New zealand and Australia couldn't win series in Lanka and Bangladesh,so it shows how good these lower ranked no:7,8 teams are on these subcontinental conditions,with only india so far not losing to them of late. I am not sure nz would fare much better in india right now than they did in 2016,but india most definitely has a decent shot in the coming series as long as their mainstays are fit(would be even better if rohit's spot was occupied by a more sound opener).

All the bowlers themselves have given credit to him for their success(except maybe ishant whose success recently is cause of the hard work he himself put in and Gillespie’s mentoring). Under dhoni india’s test team was a dud which tried to strangle opposition with spin and part time spin and lost the ploy on day 1 one itself abroad,virat’s fiery personality is pretty much reason he backs pace in tests and encourages them to and come in and bowl quick and also allowing the bowlers to express themselves , set favorable fields for them and allowed them chances to get better rather than not bowl them much and condemn them in the press conference . Shami’s elevated fitness of late is also implied to be under his encouragement ,when even in the early years under virat he carried a bit too much weight and was more injury prone. I mean the conditions in England in that series and the one they had vs pakistan had more favorable conditions for the home team than the pitches seen in the ashes this year(something both anderson and gough noted) in such condition having a batting lineup of dhawan ,rahul,dinesh karthik,alongside an out of form vijay is disastrous especially given that anderson was fully fit. Outside rahul’s 100 in the dead rubber on the easiest batting conditions presented on the tour, none of them could even get a 50 ,with 2 of them averaging single digits . Alongside that bumrah only played last couple of tests on the entire tour after missing out entire limited over leg and Bhuvneshwar who was india’s best bowler in such conditions also got injured and missed all the tests. It was never going to end well there but india competed well in most of the matches and where in with a chance in to win 2 other matches had they had even a slightly better batting lineup. Maybe even winning the toss at least once in the entire series would helped too(especially in the matches india lost by 31 runs and 50 runs).

hi Dat, I think you need to be very careful about giving credit to the captain for things that are a direct result of the players. The stars have aligned for Kohli and he now has a world class bowling attack. That has nothing to do with him. Yes he sets the fields, but he also changes them at least 4 or 5 times an over - every over. IMO, these guys, like those great West Indian and Australian attacks, need only an average skipper to be successful, especially if India is playing at home. The really good captains make things happen with limited resources and in that respect, Kohli is not good. I go back to that England tour last year, where India probably didn't have it's very best side, but were still given a hiding by England. One of the standouts for me were two Tests where Chris Woakes & Sam Curren won these games with the bat, because Kohli had no idea about how to get them out. Throw in some "interesting" selections and that was a very poor showing, IMO There are many other parts to captaincy where Kohli is poor. He's clearly a fiery character but outward displays of anger with so many cameras around is hardly a good look for the leader of the nations cricket side. I suspect if he's put under real pressure, because he doesn't have Dhoni to keep him calm & provide support, he'd seriously struggle. As it stands though, he has such a good group of players and he is such a good bat himself, he may never be really tested.

hi dat, I agree the ICC rankings aren't everything but they are indicative of the ability of that nation over a period of Tests. The West Indies, Afghanistan and Bangladesh could hardly be called test cricketing powerhouses, though in fairness, they are making some really good progress. It's also safe to say South Africa are in rebuilding mode, having lost 4 or 5 world class players in a couple of years, England have serious batting issues as evidence by the multiple innings of under 100 in recent years, Australia is marginally better, Pakistan's an enigma and Sri Lanka are trying to get their act together, both on and off the field. That leaves only the Kiwis as a possible challenge to India and India hasn't played them in years. World Test cricket, right now, is as weak as it's been in maybe 60 or 70 years. Yes, India has a great side, but apart from a few Test quality players, all the other teams are weak - again with the possible exception of New Zealand. That makes the series against Australia even more exciting, just to see where both are really at.

I feel the opponents should not be looked at just based on rankings. Because Bangladesh who only played a 1 off test vs india, challenged india more than england when they toured just a few month prior. The conditions in the sub continent for the most part are similar(except a few grounds here and there) so bangladesh who beat both England and Australia in test matches at home and sri lanka(who i assume you meant when you typed Pakistan) who whitewashed Australia,South africa(the latter both home and away) and became the first team to beat pakistan in a series in the UAE (back in 2017) shouldn’t be underestimated in Asian conditions. Even Windies are formidable at home,as england the world no:2 at the time would have noticed. India didn’t lose a game to any of those lesser ranked teams in the last 3-4 years unlike the other teams,but also had it not been for bad weather or other similar factors, they probably wouldn’t even been able to even draw games against india. I believe every other team have played at least 1 series where they were blanked (2-0 or 3-0 etc) in that time frame,something india hasn’t suffered yet. Even on the tougher tours like against eng the matches were more competitive than the series result suggests,something most teams haven’t been able to say when they tour india. Though it is to be seen,i would think right now india have a decent shot to win the series in the nz ,if bumrah is fit, as with the inclusion of agarwal,vihari and with gill ,shaw on standby, the batting lineup looks much better than the one india went with to england where dhawan,rahul,vijay and dinesh karthik(who even stopped playing first class cricket but had to be called in cause saha got injured in south africa) didn’t provide any support to virat and pujara. India’s best bowler on the previous tour of eng in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Bumrah who were both injured in eng,alongside shami or ishant would make a potent attack as well. So right now India is like, a near unbeatable team in the subcontinental conditions who are still only laying the foundations,to be almost equally good in SENA countries .

If this was in white ball cricket, i would fully agree that virat's captaincy is not really noteworthy, dhoni was an amazing capt and rohit in the limited matches he captained india(and his record as the most successful capt in ipl history) showed potential to be very good as well. But When it comes to red ball cricket,it's a different ball game. When dhoni called it quits mid series in 2014-2015 tour of aust, india had sunk to no:7 in the test rankings. After having a great start to his test captaincy when the likes of sachin,dravid,vvs,zaheer etc were present, the second half of dhoni's captaincy was poor. He kept setting defensive fields,tried to fill the teams with batsmen who bowled part time spin,openly admonished bowlers(umesh) who lack discipline in lengths and only had pace for being useless,and tried to play off the importance of away tours. We even lost a series at home to england under him. Virat on the other hand is the one who brought india back to no:1 in the world by both his performances(avg 64 as capt vs 41 as not),and bringing forward india's pace revolution. Shami who avg 37 under dhoni avg 25 under virat,Umesh who was thought to be rubbish suddenly became very good option in indian conditions(best quick in 2016-2017 border gavaskar trophy, home avg of 27).An inexperienced Bumrah got picked for the south african tour despite the pace trio of ishant,bhuvi and shami doing well till then and ended up receiving alot of flak of social media from former players and experts for picking an untested white ball expert in an important series.Even the likes of pant(only indian keeper with 100's in eng and aust) ,hardik(who was MOM in the only match india won in eng in the test series) wouldn't have likely made the 11 under the previous management as these types of aggressive middle order batsmen have failed in the past in away tours. He is also responsible for other miscellaneous factors such as setting a higher fitness standards (which helped guys like shami to not be injured all the time) the energy/passion he exuded with the fall of each wickets and encouraging his teammates and home crowds regularly, to make as much noise as possible when a new man is at the crease to add extra pressure on to him and installing a mentality to always try and go for the win,even if it means they might lose the match when a tame draw was the obvious result(backfired in 2015 in Adelaide but won them the game in chennai vs england) . Even tactically he has been shown to be more involved with dismissals these days, with the discussions with the bowlers and setting more aggressive field placements(still ways to go there but is much improved of late) . Only area he is really still to show any signs of improvement for me, is in the selection of 11,certain batsmen like rahul,dhawan all had more extended test careers, despite struggling for multiple series or even going through 2-3 year lean patches,because they are guys who virat likes(shastri still being coach and kumble being sacked when he had an excellent record can all be included here as well). India from 2016 onward have the 2nd best overall bowling avg(with SA having a disastrous series right now,india might overtake them) and the very best away avg in tests.Outside Gangully i am not sure any other former indian captain could have influenced a change like this from the traditional norm of backing spin and batting deep. Even India's home record is incredible with india only losing 1 test at home under virat in the last 5 years.

Yes. I think v similar to Graeme Smith. Not a great tactician, but a great leader of men. I've never got the impression he is a bully or leads by fear; he leads by example and expects high-performance outputs every time from those playing for India. Bat, bowl and field to the standards that warrant selection in the national team. Nothing wrong with that from the captain. Compare to our Steve Smith; led by performances on the field, but to what extent did he really impose his expectations of 100% high performance every time, on others?

Him holding everyone to his standards would bring out the best in them though, not the worst. As I said, not a good tactician, can lose his temper but his heart and passion inspires the other players to be better and perform to impress their leader.

there's no question they admire just how good a batsman Kohli is, but I'm not sure he doesn't "rule through fear".He seems to hold the power, not only on the field but also who gets chosen in the teams. I get the impression things have to be done his way, or else. I'm also not sure he's a great a captain in the dressing room as I think he'd hold everyone to his lofty standards. In that respect he and Michael Clarke were very similar - great with the bat but as managers of people - well, they were great with the bat.

The problem in India is that each state and some cities or regions have their own association and some of them are more than 75 years old. So BCCI is forced to give test matches to some of these locations and these are not really test match locations. BCCI would do well to hold tests only in the traditional centers viz Mumalbai, Chennai, Kolkotta, Delhi and Bangalore. Crowds will come in, in these centers. The other centers should host only ODIs or T20s. But this is never going to happen as easch of these centers have political clout and there is a fair bit of money even with empty stands

Kohli is not a great tactician, but he is certainly an inspirational leader. The players under him view him at near demi-god status, so its not surprise that India have become the best team in the world since he has been captain.

I wasn’t quite sure how encouraging the start by SA was, apart from what seems to have been some brilliant batting by Elgar and de Kock. Or how they got nearly all the boxes ticked with the willow in the first Test. SA was 8/70 chasing 395 to win, India having declared at 4/300+ . A couple of tailenders ended up making it slightly less humiliating. Having watched a bit of the 2015 series, I would suggest the problem wasn’t grit or even skill but the diabolical pitches served up by India that were dust balls on day one and ensured that some of the games were over by lunch on day three. The ICC reprimanded India, which shows how extreme it was getting. India had good spinners and SA didn’t. This time India is playing fairer and the pitches are roads for the first couple of days, but there is nothing in it for Rabada and Philander. Big advantage in not batting last. But very depressing atmosphere- hardly a soul in the stands.

India is going through a purple patch, similar to what the West Indies and Australia did when they were top dogs of world cricket. I take nothing away from their team, which has so many world class players, but to suggest Kohli is a great captain is not close to the mark IMO. I take your point about the series they've won, but question the quality of the opposition, with so many sides in rebuilding mode world wide. I realize sides can only beat the opposition put in front of them, but if you throw in the 5 series against the 8th ranked West Indies, Bangladesh and Pakistan, this is a so-so record at best. The one team that's settled is second placed New Zealand and India hasn't played them in a series since 2016 and not in NZ since 2013.

Paul, Some good comments. However since they lost a series to Australia in 2014/2015 (and yes that was their 4th series loss in a row), they have played 16 test series in that time losing only 2. In that time they have won 28 tests and lost only 8. Agree of the 16 series 9 were in India. And yes England did beat them 4-1, and given the current England team i wonder how. They did have Cook who made some big scores, so probably had a lot to do with it. Also Root was in far better form then. I think Kohli is a good captain (not great), and they do have a very good team, shown by their first test win against South Africa without Bumrah. They are the deserved best team in the world.

"Yes, Virat Kohli’s leadership has made the Indian team nearly unconquerable". Really? Great batsman, for sure, but he's not a great leader. He has a great team and yes, they are extremely hard to beat at home, but perhaps you've forgotten the result when he took the team to England.