India will concentrate on the next two-match Test series against South Africa after winning the ODI series and drawing the T20I series. The SuperSport Park in Centurion will host the opening test of the series starting on December 26. Under Rohit Sharma’s leadership, the visiting team will include a number of veteran players. Sunil Gavaskar, a former Indian batsman, believes the Indian batters will score a lot of runs against the Proteas as the first Test approaches. According to Gavaskar, the Indian team includes seasoned hitters, and he even said that the South African bowling attack is not all that strong.
Since they are seasoned hitters who have played worldwide, I anticipate them to score a lot of runs in these two Test matches. In addition to their abundance of quality, I believe the South African attack lacks that advantage this time around, Sunil Gavaskar told Star Sports.
The host team may suffer from the absence of key players like Anrich Nortje and the possible absence of Kagiso Rabada, he continued.
“The South African attack appears to be a little lacking in experience—not in class—given the absence of Nortje and the probable absences of Rabada and Lungi Ngidi. Thus, I think these two hitters will contribute significantly to the Indian team’s run total and score a lot of runs,” Gavaskar continued.
Putting your mind in a test-match mindset would be the difficult part. Sunil Gavaskar
Prior to the Test series, Gavaskar also discussed the mental health of captain Rohit Sharma. According to the former hitter, Rohit needs to consider lessening his aggressive style when playing Test cricket. Remarkably, the Indian captain performed admirably to guarantee India the greatest possible start in the 2023 ODI World Cup.
“Getting your mental state into a test-match environment is the primary problem. Since he decided to play the attacking role and attempt to score as many runs as possible in the first 10 overs of field limits, he has been batting in the One-Day International (ODI) format, according to Gavaskar.
For Test cricket, he will need to think in terms of batting all day, so he will have to entirely alter his strategy. He said, “If he bats all day, then it’s obvious that with his range of shots, he can end up with 180 or 190 not out at the end of the day and India will be 300-plus.”