‘Can’t take South Africa lightly, they beat Australia at WTC final’ – India not taking Proteas lightly before of Kolkata Test

India and South Africa will face battle in the opening Test of the forthcoming two-match series. The first game will be played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on November 14, and the hosts will face a significant challenge as they face the current World Test Championship winners in a bid to secure their own spot in the next final in 2027.

Ryan ten Doeschate, India’s assistant coach, has acknowledged the potency of the Temba Bavuma-led team.

He praised the Proteas for defeating a top-ranked side like Australia in the WTC Final 2025, where they claimed their first ICC trophy. With excellent spinners like Senuran Muthusamy and Keshav Maharaj in the visiting side’s lineup, ten Doeschate believes the contest would be exciting.

“South Africa deserve a lot of credit for how they’ve gone about their work in the last sort of nine, ten months. You know, the position they found themselves in the WTC. And they show that they are a quality team to beat Australia at the final. Also, the mention of how a prototype they are as a spin attack makes even more mouthwatering, if you want to put it that way, to be playing them at home,” ten Doeschate said at the pre-match press conference.

Ten Doeschate also said that India’s own WTC cycle depends on every match and every series that they play. The Shubman Gill-led side is currently ranked third on the points table, having won four out of their seven games thus far. South Africa, on the other hand, have played only a couple of Tests in the current cycle, maintaining their points’ percentage (PCT) at 50.00. They are ranked fifth on the table.

“But also the WTC is just so important. There’s no series that you can just take lightly and let slip by. And obviously in the context of a World Cup coming up in a couple of months and managing the three formats, I’d say this is as important as anything else. And obviously a very big step to us achieving getting to the World Test Championship final in 2027. So yeah, everyone’s looking forward to it. It should be a great contest,” ten Doeschate said further.