South Africa scraping the barrel in more ways than one

South Africa scraping the barrel in more ways than one

India’s playing XI looks settled and primed, which means there should be no changes unless fitness issues crop up. © BCCI

The way things are going, South Africa will be lucky to have a fully fit international-class team on the park by the time their six-match One-Day International series against India draws to a close. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but injuries have hit South Africa hard. They started the series without AB de Villiers for the first three ODIs, lost Faf du Plessis after the first ODI and then lost Quinton de Kock after the second. It may be only three players, but those are three that are practically irreplaceable.

As a result, South Africa will be heading into the third ODI at Newlands in Cape Town on Wednesday (February 7) as the definite underdogs. A month ago, both teams had arrived at the same venue with the home side the favourite in what promised to be an exciting Test series. The long format lived up to its promise, but while much the same was expected in 50-overs cricket, South Africa’s crippling injuries have made it one-way traffic so far.

That is not the only thing that has changed in a month. Newlands is still one of the prettiest venues in the world, and the Table Mountain still provides a backdrop like no other — but it’s parched. The lush outfield has hints of brown appearing all over, and the water crisis that had hit the city has only worsened. The rationing of water has gone from 80 litres per day down to 50 litres in households, and the outfield hasn’t been able to be watered everyday due to the severe water shortage and consequent restrictions.

“We all know that there is a drought here and we respect that,” said Shikhar Dhawan on Tuesday. “We are aware that we have to save as much water as we can, because people need it. We respect that.”

Borewell water has been used to water the pitch, which is also going to be a completely different animal than the seaming, bouncing track that was dished out for the first Test. Even Flint, the curator, indicated that the ODI deck would be a normal one, with runs for the taking.

Teams (from):

India: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma (vice-capt), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Shardul Thakur.

South Africa: Aiden Markram (capt), Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Lungisani Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Khaya Zondo, Farhaan Behardien, Heinrich Klaasen (wk).

Whether that translates into South Africa actually getting the runs remains to be seen. They have read Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav worse than a third grader handed an advanced calculus book, and though a variety of wrist-spinners were pressed into action at the team’s nets on match eve, you can’t really expect net bowlers to replicate the level of skill and control that India’s spinners have.

Kagiso Rabada, one of the few players from the home side to have held his own with the team floundering, said that the multiple injuries could be a ‘blessing in disguise’ in terms of widening the pool of players to choose from. “It gives other players are chance,” said the pacer. “We’ve got players who have been playing in franchise cricket for a while and doing pretty well. Those three names that have dropped out of the team are pretty much irreplaceable at the moment. So, it just gives guys a chance to widen the pool so other players can experience international cricket. Widening the pool is great. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.”

India’s playing XI looks settled and primed, which means there should be no changes unless fitness issues crop up. South Africa will be handing a debut to Heinrich Klaasen, the Titans wicketkeeper who had been added to the squad after the first ODI. With de Kock ruled out now, Klaasen finds himself the only wicketkeeper in the squad. He has been in good form in the domestic one-dayers, which will help him, but tackling India’s bowling attack will be a different challenge altogether. Given de Kock’s injury, it also looks likely that Aiden Markram will push himself up the order to open alongside Hashim Amla.

It’s been a rough initiation for Markram as a captain, though if he wanted a test by fire to understand all the extreme pressures of captaincy, he’s certainly getting a crash course.

The forecast for the match is sunny skies, which would ordinarily be good news for cricket. For the South African team, and the Cape Town residents in particular, that is far from welcome. A spell of rain and a washed out match may be just what the team requires to get their bearings back, while it’s certainly what the city requires to start getting itself back on its feet.