South Africa had mixture experiences in their last international tour in India. While they won the limited-overs series, they totally failed in the Test series. South African pacer Kagiso Rabada has recently shared his experiences in the last India tour for South Africa.
South African side is preparing for the upcoming tour in India. In September-October, South Africa will play a three-match T20I series and three-match Test series against the hosts India. Later, in March 2020, they will again tour in India for the three-match ODI series.
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Last time, South Africa had a tour in India in 2015/16 season where they played full international series in together. Like the South African team, Kagiso Rabada also achieved half-success in that tour. However, Rabada is now ready to utilise his past experiences on the Indian soil.
Rabada recently said according to Times Live, “You need to figure out what you need to do to give the team a better chance to win, that is what I try to focus on. When you have played there before you will have an idea of what to do in certain tough situations.”
The Test series was a bit of a shambles because those wickets were just terrible – Kagiso Rabada
In the last India tour, South Africa won both the T20I (2-0 in three matches) and ODI series (3-2 in five matches). However, later, they suffered the 3-0 defeat in the four-match Test series against the hosts India. In the Test series, South Africa managed to score 200+ runs in only one innings (214 runs) out of their seven innings.
Rabada (10 wickets) was the joint leading wicket-taker in the ODI series of that tour along with his teammate Dale Steyn (10 wickets). But Rabada managed only one wicket in two T20Is and only two wickets in three Tests.
Talking about their disaster performances in the Test series during their previous India tour, Rabada pointed out the qualities of the pitches.
He said, “The previous tour we were successful because we won the T20 and ODI series but the Test series was a bit of a shambles because those wickets were just terrible. If I could give an example the first Test match it was 200 v 200 in the first innings. If we batted first it was going to be a different ball game because we ended up having to chase the game. We lost 3-0 and we were truly hammered.”
On our recent tour to Sri Lanka, it was tricky conditions
In last year, South Africa toured Sri Lanka for the two-match Test series, five-match ODI series and only T20I. South Africa won the ODI series by the 3-2 margins but lost the only T20I and both the Test matches.
Talking about their plan to handle the spin-bowling in the forthcoming India tour, Rabada said, “On our recent tour to Sri Lanka, it was tricky conditions. There is a whole lot of talk about how to approach spin but we will see how it goes.”
The three-match T20I series between India and South Africa will run from 15th September to 22nd September 2019. Then, the Test series will run between 2nd and 23rd October 2019.