‘They are experienced batters’ – Sunil Gavaskar analyses India’s squad ahead of 1st Test against South Africa

India’s legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar recently analysed India’s Test squad against South Africa for India’s tour of South Africa. India will play a two-match Test series against South Africa from 26th December and conclude the second match on 7 January 2024. The teams previously made team match T-20 and ODI series, which were drawn and won by India respectively  

Sunil Gavaskar believes India have a good chance of winning the Test series against South Africa this time considering the team has never won it before. Gavaskar discussed that the squad has a lot of experience patterns, especially like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and expects the batsmen to score tons of runs throughout the series. 

Sunil Gavaskar on India’s Test series against South Africa

“They are experienced batters, who are coming after playing everywhere, so I expect them to score lots of runs in these two Test matches. Not only because they have got so much talent, but this time around, I think the South African attack does not have that edge,” said Gavaskar. 

“With the absence of Nortje, with the likely absence of Rabada and Lungi Ngidi, the South African attack looks a little bit short on experience, I am not saying short of class. So I feel these two batters will score lots of runs and help the Indian team post a big score,” he added. 

“First and foremost, the challenge would be to get your mental state into a test match situation. He has been batting in the ODI format where he had decided that he was going to be playing the attacking role and try and score as many runs as possible in the first 10 overs of field restrictions,” Gavaskar said. “He will have to change the approach completely for Test cricket because he will have to think in terms of batting the whole day. If he bats the whole day, then, clearly with the range of shots that he has got, he will be able to end up with 180 or 190 not out at the end of the day and India will be 300-plus,” he concluded.

SA vs IND Test Squad 

India Test squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Prasidh Krishna, KS Bharat (wk), Abhimanyu Easwaran.

South Africa Test squad: Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham, Nandre Burger, Gerald Coetzee, Tony de Zorzi, Dean Elgar, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Keegan Petersen, Kagiso Rabada, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne (wk).