Well, to start off, the ODI’s against the Proteas was just that awakening which required MS Dhoni and his men to know about their arrival in hell and not heaven.
Well, to start off, the ODI’s against the Proteas was just that awakening which required MS Dhoni and his men to know about their arrival in hell and not heaven. A 2-0 whitewash for the number one ranked ODI team brought the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli on ground after a fairytale year. Prior to the series, some players were blowing the trumpet of acclimatising to the South African pitches since some of them were involved during the India A tour this year.
With ODI loss behind them, Dhoni starts afresh in Tests knowing that his team could do the vice versa on the Proteas. But as the Indian batsmen were thinking of merry days, steps up – SA speedster Morne Morkel. The six-plus bowler who has played in 51 Tests and plucked 177 wickets at average of 30.23 has already made his numero uno target – Virat Kohli.
The Little Master, Sachin Tendulkar who once terrorized the bowlers with his strokeplay has settled off into the sunset with the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli taking the stage. No wonder Morne Morkel has set his sights on the Delhi lad. In a quote to top Indian newspaper, Morkel says, “They don’t have guys like (Rahul) Dravid and (Sachin) Tendulkar who can build the innings. These are players who come out and play attacking shots and we are ready for that.” He further adds, “Sachin was a guy who could bat time and put you under pressure. Virat is obviously going to slot into that role and he’s got some big boots to fill. He is a quality player but there’s going to be testing times ahead of him in South Africa.”
With the 2-Test series kicking off from 18th December, Virat Kohli has surely a lot of thinking to do.
