Audacious claim of SA Great on Rohit-led India ahead of the Test series
The Indian cricket team will return to action in the longest format of the game on December 26 as the side takes part in the first of two Tests against South Africa. The series will mark the much-awaited return of star batting duo Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, as well as pacer Jasprit Bumrah. While Mohammed Shami was touted to return to the Indian team in the Test series for the first time since the World Cup, he was forced out of the tour with an injury.
But while Shami's absence certainly leaves a gaping hole in India's planning, former South African pacer Fanie de Villiers believes that Rohit Sharma's men have the best chance of ending a 31-year wait for a Test series win in the Rainbow Nation.
De Villiers said during an exclusive interview before the Boxing Day Test starting on December 26, "The Indian team has arrived in South Africa with its best ever chance to win a series.”
The bowler, who had a stunning economy rate of less than four in 85 ODIs and less than three in 18 Tests, said that, "For the first time, they have got fast bowlers who can bowl 'the line' and not just hit the length. They can bowl on the imaginary 'fifth’, ‘sixth' off-stump line. If you can get at least four balls on that corridor, that's how you win tests.
Fanie also said that "India has been coming for many years, but very few of your fast bowlers were line bowlers. But now you have Bumrah and Siraj. Yes, I agree that Shami not playing makes a massive difference. But Siraj and Bumrah are bowlers who can bowl line, whereas South African bowlers bowl from off to leg stump.”