India's tour of South Africa 2018: Analysing India's batting riches

After a commanding all-round display in Tests at home, the Virat Kohli-led Indian team will soon embark to South Africa for the real 'test', a period of cricket away from home where their talent and temperament will be tested in equal measure.

Here's a comprehensive analysis of the batsmen in Team India's ranks, who will have to put up their best batting performance in recent times to counter the menace of the South African bowlers, come January 2018:

Murali Vijay

With 11 Test tons under his belt and the gnawing wrist injury, that crippled his velvety, languid stroke-play, behind him, Murali Vijay has emerged as the No.1 choice for opening in Tests after a tough 2017, where he suffered the mortification of being benched at Kolkata [against Sri Lanka in November]. His mental tenacity helped him quell his demons and turn things around with successive tons on his comeback.

To have the ability to leave the ball outside the off-stump, and to know the off-stump is a huge judgemental call to possess in Tests, which Vijay astutely displayed whilst compiling contrasting tons in Lords and Brisbane in the season of 2014-15. Prior to that, he had missed a ton at Kingsmead, Durban by eking 97 priceless runs.

He is quite adept in this skilled game of 'body and mind' marathon and at 33, understands batting and knows his game well enough to accelerate and decelerate at the right moments. His success as an opener in next the 13 away test matches, starting with the Protean trip in early 2018 will enable the side to establish a strong base to build on, as he has the ability and the enduring spirit to weather the vagaries of Test match cricket in a cocooned bubble.

Shikhar Dhawan

After a sensational debut at Mohali in 2013 versus the Aussies, where he scythed them to a resplendent 187 in rip-roaring fashion with none of the debutant nerves, it won't be out of place to say that Shikhar's form in Test matches has tapered off drastically since. He has certainly not set the world alight barring good consistent overseas displays in Sri Lanka.

His regular success in the shortened formats, in the intervening periods that included stunning displays in the Champions Trophy twice in 2013 and 2017 and in the World Cup at Australia in 2015, has accorded the team to lend him a longer rope to sustain in Tests. It is about time he pays them back with solid consistent runs.

This spell of away matches in South Africa, England and Australia (if picked regularly), i.e, in the next 15 months, may well be his last set of chances to salvage his Test career and mitigate his woes abroad, where his best score thus far is 81 at Brisbane.

His shockingly sparse returns at England in the summer of 14' and at SA earlier in late 2013 are virtually nothing to write home about, with less than 200 runs in ten digs. His propensity to play shots, if "judicious and selective", and his ability to play the ball on the up are handy attributes to dent the new ball.

It throws the new ball bowlers off their radar provided he tightens his overall game on these seaming tracks by playing back and across. Batting is about 'give and take': unless Shikhar masters the art of "give", and bides time and develops an ability to play a string of dot balls (remain in sheltered concentration), his raging temper at the crease can be fatal.

KL Rahul

I was immediately impressed by his brilliance in compiling back-to-back tons for South Zone versus Central Zone three years ago when I was the coach of the side. With an airtight technique and an Oh! so correct approach at the crease, all prim and proper without a hair out of place, it has mystified a lot of discerning followers as to why he has not filled up his boots with more runs and a longer batting span.

It certainly perplexes me as to why he is unable to convert his starts and unable to kick on after notching fifties. It betrays a certain lapse in concentration and the hurt that he has endured warming the benches, notwithstanding his 10 half centuries in 2017, must steel his will.

Batting for long periods is about obsession and the ensuing satisfaction after long hours of self-persecution and ironclad discipline. That he has all the shots is reflected in his T20I ton in Windies in August 2016, but the key is to have patience on a monument and a firm, focussed mind to eschew high-risk shots, which he is capable of as his aggregate suggests.

There is none doubting his splendid talents, but should he not convert those starts, after the hard yards seeing the new ball off, it will be infuriatingly mad for Indian cricket. Aside, he may also provide the team with more options and be considered as a No.5 or a 6, should the team's think-tank look to replace an out of form Rahane. His skill sets as an opener to deal with the second ball might well be more than handy. But, in my book, he may have to wait a tad, as the first choice could well be Vijay and Shikhar.

Cheteshwar Pujara

On his third tour to South Africa, Pujara was the highest scorer in late 2013 with a superb 153 at Johannesburg. 4 years hence, with banks of runs and experience, Pujara is at the stage of his batting career where he knows his own game and plays to his potential for optimum results.

A sturdy No.3 blunts the opponents no end and more so with his tight defensive technique, monumental patience till the cows come back home after grazing and a ceaseless penchant to gnaw away like a hardworking ant. The only downside is that he may possess low hands with a quirky bottom-handed grip.

In bouncy conditions, he may be slow on the hook shot which he otherwise gets away with on slow, low pitches of Asia. To his credit, it must be said, he runs his own race and does not tinker too much with the software. And that to me, is his greatest trait, and going by the stats, can anyone blame him!

Virat Kohli

Among the batsmen set to tour South Africa, it is Virat Kohli who boasts of an enviable tour in 2013, as he nearly compiled successive tons at Johannesburg in a lost cause.

His insatiable hunger for runs has been Bradmanesque lately, and with the self-imposed rest, he is bound to be fresh and eager to lead the batsmen with good totals to help his battery of fast bowlers put pressure on the Protean batsmen.

Winning at cricket and scoring runs at batting is about skill with control. Angry young players without focus can lose the plot and it is to Virat 's exemplary credit that he has fought fire with fire, unafraid to give a bit of lip to the bowlers!

Anxious fans and discerning watchers of Virat reckoned that his inflammable anger may well consume him when handed the baton of Test captaincy. But, by his superb showing since assuming greater responsibility and with his enhanced laser-like focus, he has taught his own self about himself, by digging deep and being the side's inspiring torchbearer.

Virat 's greatest strength lately after the tour of Australia in 2014-15, is that he has skilfully combined Zen-like caution and patience with his innate aggression at the crease. Not easy to achieve, after a grueling summer in the Old Blighty in 2014, when he plumbed to an abysmal nadir failure as a batsman affects both the self and lets down the team too as the burden as a captain becomes heavy to bear. It is in this tough context that batsmen captain cut their teeth and achieve greatness when they succeed.

Even a player like Virat, like Sachin Tendulkar at No.4 before him, would dearly love and seek the support of the top order batsmen, to mitigate his concerns. They would help him to be at relatively greater ease, in these seaming and darting tracks of abroad, cut and dried for cunning pacemen.

Virat must find inspiration in this dual responsibility, which he has so dexterously displayed in the Windies and in Sri Lanka after, handing the mantle of captaincy. The stage is set for him to showcase similar inspirational deeds in the Southern hemisphere and at the Mother of all helpful bowling conditions, UK, as a skipper of well-oiled Indian liner!

Ajinkya Rahane

Woefully out of form lately, I sincerely hope Rahane will turn around his fortunes in a dramatic fashion, cometh Cape Town! His returns away from India might well sway Virat to playing him, ignoring his current returns. All he has to do is watch those videos from the archives when he ruled and gathered runs by bucketfuls.

He is at his best when he plays tight and close to his body, and in seaming decks against the might of Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, and Morne Morkel, it is a safe bet, dare I say! Lately, he may have developed the bad habit of fishing and poking outside the off stump in anxiety, which led to agony and virtually no returns.

Rohit Sharma

With oodles of talent and a remarkable sense of time and timing, which, even seasoned batsmen crave and cringe for at the crease, Rohit Sharma is the kind of batsmen one pays to watch. But even his staunchest fan would admit that he has underachieved in Tests, making one and all pluck hair in abject frustration. Unless India play four proper bowlers and Saha, Rohit won't get a look in, and I think Rahane may well be preferred over Rohit, despite the latter's red-hot form.

After having missed the entire home season of 2016-17, when all his peers filled their boots, he was agonizingly out of the team, having had his thigh operated. Put in that context, he may be running out of time, should he not fulfill his abundant potential by churning out hard runs in these 15 months ahead of him. Unlike Rahane, he may not have happy memories of his sojourn to SA, England or to Australia.

But that is the challenge that he must embrace and it is about time he girds up his loins to not go down without a scrappy fight, even ink in ugly runs, should the situation demand.

'Now or never' time stares Rohit square in the face!

Ravichandran Ashwin

Blessed with languid grace and an ability to read the situation, Ashwin adds value to the side by his valuable runs. Statistics point to his twin half-centuries in Australia. It is vitally paramount that he prepares well as he has the skill to play and eke useful runs to bolster the side's tally. Should he put a price tag on his wicket, to shirk his poor run versus the Lankans lately, it will be a huge succor to himself and the team.

Ravindra Jadeja

Possessed with an undiluted skill to lash and clobber the ball when the ball is in his arc of batwing, Jadeja quite enjoyed his stints in England as a late-order destroyer in 2014. He has the ability to cream boundaries with fast hands, and given his opportunities as a bowler may be limited in terms of support from the deck, it is an essential pre-requisite that he turns up and adds gold dust like value with the bat.