IND vs SA: Kohli returns as India eye historic series win

Cape Town: Virat Kohli’s talismanic presence will be the shot in the arm that India would need in their bid to win the historic first-ever away Test series against South Africa but the hosts will also walk in with a spring in their step in the final Test starting here Tuesday. Kohli missed the last […]

Cape Town: Virat Kohli’s talismanic presence will be the shot in the arm that India would need in their bid to win the historic first-ever away Test series against South Africa but the hosts will also walk in with a spring in their step in the final Test starting here Tuesday.

Kohli missed the last Test in Johannesburg due to back spasms and if the training session at the Newlands was anything to go by, the skipper is not going to miss the series-finale for anything with the two teams locked at 1-1.

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The hosts will definitely fancy their chances after a fighting performance drew them level in the second Test. And playing his 99th Test on what will also be his daughter’s first birthday, the batter in Kohli would like to make it a special one for the ‘Captain’, who has been under tremendous pressure of late.

Nothing succeeds like success and winning the first ever Test series in South Africa in three decades will certainly establish Kohli as one of the greatest to have led the country in the traditional format.

And to achieve that, the team’s batting, which hasn’t exactly been anything more than mediocre, needs to improve by a few notches and perhaps a first innings score in excess of 300 plus will set the tone.

There are players, whose mere presence gives any team an added psychological boost, and the Indian skipper is one such character. Whether he is batting or is in the field, Kohli’s presence can always be unsettling for the opposition, which is bound to plan differently for him even if it means that he hasn’t got a hundred for two years.

But if one closely looks at Kohli’s batting in these two years, unlike Pujara and Rahane, he has looked way more assured till the time he has got out. It has been either one good ball or a rank bad shot that has got him and not lack of confidence and jittery starts that could put the dressing room in panic mode.

Hanuma Vihari might feel hard done after two fighting knocks – especially the 40 not out in the second innings in Johannesburg – but such is nature of the beast that he would be the sacrificial lamb till Team India regains its faith in Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane’s abilities.

A case in point is Rishabh Pant, whose walking down the track against express pace in recent months, has had a lot of “intent” but not much of “content”. On a Newlands track, which will be juicy with variable bounce, India will need to bat way better against Kagiso Rabada, Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen, all of who bring different skills to the table.

India have never won a Test in Cape Town and for a change in script, the three middle-order veterans need to do way more than what they did at the Wanderers.

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