IND vs SA | Ranchi Day 3 Talking Points - Indian bowling beyond Ashwin and Rishabh Pant’s questionable 'cameo'

BySritama Panda, SportsCafe Editor

10/21/2019

This series has been a testimony to the fact India are dominant like no other on their home soil and neither are they reliant on a particular player. South Africa, meanwhile, have learnt that they missed out on including their top-scorer from the first innings Zubayr Hamza in the first two Tests.

South Africa’s latest addition is a late one

The eventuality of Zubayr Hamza becoming the 100th South Africa cricketer to earn a Test cap since readmission always meant he is someone to treasure. From idolising Jacques Kallis to playing alongside Hashim Amla for Cape Cobras, Hamza has earned the experience of performing to the best of his abilities. And that explains his batting average of 50 in First-Class cricket. But Hamza, who made a lovely 41 on his debut in early 2019, never got a chance to play his second Test until the ongoing third Test against India. Were South Africa wrong in selecting Theunis de Bruyn over Hamza in the first couple of games?

The 24-year-old let his bat do the talking when South Africa were struggling with both the openers, Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock been dismissed early on in the innings. He top scored with 62 runs off 79 deliveries and helped South Africa imbibe life into their innings. When he was dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja who fired in wide from the crease to the leg stump, the batsman remained on his back foot to produce a flick and instead edged it to the keeper.

Hence, Hamza's elegant resistance came to an end and soon after his 91-run partnership with Temba Bavuma was broken, the latter was uprooted by debutant Shahbaz Nadeem. Perhaps, it was a mistake to ignore Hamza in the first two games as his patience, that was seen in his batting and when he got out but remained on the crease to contemplate his wicket, was the thing that a desperate and hopeless South Africa were missing.

Pant’s late cameo justifies why Saha was chosen over him

Here comes another mention of the 2015 home series against South Africa, a contest that has many masked elements to be spoken about in the current scenario. That series was significant for Wriddhiman Saha, who has impressed immensely in the ongoing series especially in the Pune Test wherein he took some exceptional blinders making it to the highlights of this tour. But in 2015, he had started off with a duck.

He was someone else altogether with a rare confidence, incredible reflex and an understanding of the turn that subcontinent pitches have to offer. The Bengal gloveman pulled off incredible stumpings and with the series moving ahead he took notable catches. The season would go on to be one of the biggest highlights of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja’s career, and then there was Saha doing the damage all gloved up behind all the limelight.

The significance of a wicketkeeper in sub-continent conditions and the dip in form for Rishabh Pant, the more organic batsman, earned Saha a place ahead of the 21-year-old. His position in the team was justified once again after he was hit on his left thumb during South Africa’s second innings and Pant came in as Saha’s replacement. Sure the chirping behind the stumps went from a blunt three to a sharp 10 with the advent of Pant, but the glimpses of wicketkeeping brilliance were lost. By the end of day’s play, Pant gave away two byes and even wasted a review for caught behind that lacked conviction.

India shine despite ordinary day for Ravichandran Ashwin

Back in 2015, when South Africa’s tour to India had announced the embarkment of a new age of Indian dominance at home, Ashwin was horrendously brilliant against his opponents giving them no chance to thrive, bagging 31 wickets in four games including four five-wicket hauls. The second-highest wicket-taker was Ravindra Jadeja with 23 wickets declaring Indian pitches to be unplayable in the presence of Ashwin and his deputy.

But the fact that India lost their best bowler Jasprit Bumrah for the entire home season attests that Virat Kohli and co. are not reliant on a single set of players, a fact that was proven when India completely rolled over South Africa for 162 even on a rare off day for Ashwin.

Not just that, but the myth of Indian pacers being auxiliary to the spinners on home soil has been rendered obsolete. While Jadeja and Nadeem did bowl well, Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami produced some exceptional bowling. Yadav’s delivery to Faf du Plessis that got him plumb or Jadeja’s fired off delivery to uproot Hamza are a testimony to what the pacers have to offer in this setup. Another factor that put India way ahead of South Africa, whose pacers never really cracked the code. And hence the misery.