IND vs SA | India are the firm favourites to win the series, says Monty Panesar

India recently won a Test series at home against New Zealand and are scheduled to tour South Africa for a three match Test series and the same number of ODIs. This will be the first red-ball series for Rahul Dravid as head coach away from home. Former head coach Ravi Shastri resigned from the post after the T20 World Cup 2021 but the team performed brilliantly in Tests during his coaching. 

“So, I think it is still there within this Indian team and this will be historic for Indian cricket for them to win their first series in South Africa and this is their best chance. They have got a stronger team. Their team is much stronger than the South Africans. I think India are firm favourites to win the series.”

“I think he will be very motivated because he knows that if he does not score a lot of runs in Test cricket then that position could be up for grabs as well. So, he is under pressure to perform but he needs to do well and actually get some wins and even India are winning and he does not score the runs that still is a positive for Virat Kohli because he knows how to get the best out of an individual,” he stated.

“So, he needs to put that aside now and think about how to win in South Africa which is far more important and that is what I think BCCI wants from him. He wants to get the best eleven out there to win this Test series.”

"I think the board made the right decision because in the past you need one captain for ODI and T20 cricket and Sourav Ganguly made the right decision because he was one of the first cricketers who actually brought in that that fight for beating other oppositions away from India and especially in white-ball cricket he very much knows from the leadership point of view that one captain is already better and since Virat Kohli wanted to step away from T20 captaincy and I think he gave him the opportunity for Rohit Sharma to actually captain both teams because two big tournaments are coming up with the T20 World Cup and also the World Cup in India is the best time to have a white-ball captain for white-ball and let Virat Kohli focus on Test duties," he concluded.