India won the ODI series 5-1 and has taken a 1-0 lead in the T20I series as well. With most of the nation celebrating the gains from the series for the Indian team, former India all-rounder Mohinder Amarnath has some concerns for the team.
The 1983 World Cup final’s Man of the Match, Amarnath wrote in his column for Times of India that, “Although they won the ODIs comfortably, the main purpose of the South Africa tour would have been to win the Tests. So there is still some work to do as far as the five-day format is concerned and the combination still needs some work when they go abroad.”
Amarnath further wrote, “There’s no doubt that India are definitely playing their best cricket right now. The turnaround was winning that third and final Test and it was a crucial win. Although they had lost the series, we could see the intensity was always there, they wanted to do well and show the world that they could win Test matches away too. If luck had gone India’s way, they just might have won the Tests too.”
Mohinder Amarnath said that the Indian team is dependent on a couple of players in the batting department.
He wrote, “As far as the one-dayers go, usually there is not much difference between sides in this format of the game. It depends on how you play on the day, but then again I felt India were riding on just one man, and that is the captain, Virat Kohli.”
The 67-year-old further said, “He is right there at the top with the best in the business. And that’s a very good sign for India. However, other than Virat and Shikhar Dhawan, we’ve not seen much from the rest in the batting department. The worry is, what if the top order doesn’t come through on a particular day, what would happen? It is here that India need to really work hard and try and get a settled and strong middle order.”
Amarnath credited the spin twins Kuldeep and Chahal for breaking the morale of South African batsmen during the ODI series. He also praised the Man of the match in the first T20I, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who picked his first five wicket haul, for his performance.
“If they have been confused by the Indian spinners, on Sunday they were outdone by the medium pace of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. It doesn’t matter which format you’re playing, you still have to bowl in the right area, and still have to move the ball and keep the batsman guessing. In that respect, Bhuvneshwar is a very crafty bowler who has a lot of variation, with pace and slower deliveries, which he uses well in the death overs. He really controls the game when it comes to a tight situation. So India looks a much better, superior team, and they should win this T20 series as well,” wrote Amarnath.
