Former South Africa pacer Fanie de Villiers believes that it might be India’s best opportunity to claim their first test series in the rainbow nation.
Notable that India never won a Test series in the previous 7 tours to South Africa. In fact, they could win only 3 Tests out of 20 in this country. However, Virat Kohli & co. have reached new heights as a Test side. India won two consecutive series in Australia and are leading by 2-1 in an unfinished series in England earlier this year.
(Photo by Wessel Oosthuizen/Gallo Images)
In an interview with TOI, Fanie de Villiers spoke at length about various aspects of the series. Though the former South African player isn’t very optimistic about the Proteas even in their own backward.
“We are trying to find our feet in both bowling and batting. This might be your best chance in our backyard.” said de Villiers.”
However, he warned that the rain might spoilsport in the first test match at Centurion.
“I live right next to the Centurion cricket field. We’ve had rain or thunderstorms here every single day. It rains even in the evenings, which makes it very, very wet. We have had one of our wettest summers.” he stated.
The 57-year old also said that India would miss the services of Rohit Sharma though he is quite confident that other batters would be up for the challenge.
“Rohit has been an absolutely wonderful cricket player and a big help in Indian cricket. I’m sure that he was involved in a lot of evolving that took place in the team. As outsiders, we’ve seen so many spectacular (Indian) batsmen coming forward that it blows your mind. It’s the reason why I feel that there are so many batsmen who can take his place and probably do well.” he told TOI.
“Nortje is a big loss but Duanne Olivier is a similar kind of bowler”
On the other side, the former pacer said that South Africa might not miss Anrich Nortje much as Duanne Olivier is a similar kind of bowler and can fill in Nortje’s role well.
“Nortje has never really swung the ball. He’s a fast bowler. That’s why I feel that Duanne is a similar type of bowler who runs in and bowls quick. I think that if Nortje was an away swing bowler like Dale Steyn, or an inswing bowler like Allan Donald, he would have been missed much more.” he explained.
Fanie de Villiers played 18 Tests and 83 ODIs for South Africa as he formed one of the lethal pace bowling combos with Allan Donald in the early 90s.
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