Barring Zaheer Khan and Umesh Yadav, all Indian bowlers will hit the South African shores for the first time next month. So the big question is: Can the bowlers of world's No. 2 Test team trouble the best Test team in the world?
Former India pacers Manoj Prabhakar and Chetan Sharma were in the same position when they took on the Proteas for the first time in 1992. The conditions as well as the cricket balls were completely alien to them, something the likes of Mohammad Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar will have to get used to in a hurry.
Prabhakar tried to put it in perspective. "Bowling with an old Kookaburra ball should be their biggest concern. When I visited South Africa for the first time in 1992, I was very successful with the new ball but was clueless when the ball got 20 overs old. The behaviour of old SG and Kookaburra balls is completely different which makes it tough for every paceman," he told TOI on Friday.
The Delhi paceman feels the tour of SA will be true test for Australian bowling coach of Indian team Joe Dawes. "It is understandable that Dawes struggled to help out the paceman because he is not used to working with the SG ball.
But in South Africa, there is no scope for any excuse. It will be Dawes' job to guide the likes of Shami and Bhuvneshwar if India hopes to be successful against a quality South African batting lineup," Prabhakar said.
Zaheer has been the spearhead of the Indian attack for over a decade now. The 88-Test veteran who has 295 scalps will be the de-facto bowling leader of this pack in spite of the fact that he is making a comeback after a long gap.
"When we toured in 1992, both Prabhakar and I always looked up to Kapil Dev. Even Kapil paaji hadn't bowled in South Africa but his experience mattered a lot. Zaheer might have been on the sidelines for a while now but for me he should be a certainty in the Test side. Both Shami and Bhuvneshwar will look up to him for guidance," Sharma said.
Sharma agreed with Prabhakar that bowling with the 'old' Kookaburra is going to be hard for the Indians. "I don't think South Africans will lay out a green-top in any of the two Tests but the ball will definitely bounce and they will rely on Steyn to move it.
I personally always found the Kookaburra really hard to bowl with and how fast the Indian pacers deal with it will be crucial," he added.
The jack in the pack might well turn out to be off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. The Tamil Nadu tweaker has only three Tests overseas till date and has taken only nine wickets at an average of 62.77. The other worrying factor is the strike-rate which drops from a wicket every 51 balls at home to 112 abroad.
Former off-spinner Erapalli Prasanna believes Ashwin's form could be critical to Indian fortunes. "I believe the current Indian bowling attack revolves around Ashwin. If his strike-rate drops to a wicket every 90-100 balls, it will mean South African batsmen will easily post a total of around 400.
Ravindra Jadeja will be around to keep the run-scoring in check but MS Dhoni will count on Ashwin to pick up bulk of the wickets," Prasanna said.
He gave the example of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane, where England struggled due to the failure of the Graeme Swann. "Australia were struggling at 130-odd for six and if Swann could have bundled them out, the story of the Test might have been completely different. So the role of the spinners should not be taken lightly in SA or Australia," Prasanna felt.
In a battle between arguably the best bowling attack in the world against an in-form Indian batting lineup, good bowling by the visitors might well tilt the scales in the eagerly awaited series.
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