Former Proteas Performance analyst, Prasanna Agoram, has warned us about Virat Kohli’s record in South Africa, the dominance of the current India Test team and South Africa’s recent complacency at home, writes Ongama Gcwabe.

India have never won a Test series in South Africa before, but teams of the past were not as evolved as a unit as this India side, and they simply did not have the same results away from home as the current side.

India will arrive having won a series at home against New Zealand. Before that they were on the brink of registering a series win in England, before the fifth and final Test was postponed, and they also won a Test series in Australia.

South Africa can not afford to be complacent when we host India, the last time we showed signs of complacency was in 2019 where a star-studded Proteas unit, with Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada, Duanne Olivier and Vernon Philander, got swept 2-0 by Sri Lanka handing them their very first series victory for an Asian team in SA.

One man who will be standing in the Proteas’ way to maintaining the perfect home Test record against India is none other than Virat Kohli. Yes, he is not in form but his record in South Africa speaks for itself.

“Since 2019 against Bangladesh Virat Kohli hasn’t scored an international hundred,” former Proteas Performance/Technical Analyst, Prasanna Agoram told Cricket Fanatics Magazine.

“That is a long failure for one of the world’s best batters across all formats. But we all know what Virat Kohi did when he came to South Africa the last time – how many hundreds after hundreds in both Test matches and ODI matches?

“Even in the previous series in 2013, when he came, he scored a hundred in the first Test in Johannesburg. So, Virat Kohli has always been successful in South Africa,” he added

Last year (2020) was a tough year for Kohli as he only managed 116 runs at an average of 19, while his 2021 numbers aren’t impressive as well. When Kohli’s 71^st International century will come is a question that has been making rounds.

“People have been asking for a long time when will the 71^st international century arrive and there wouldn’t have been a better place for him to come than here on tough South African conditions, with a great bowling attack of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje,” said Agoram.

“He’ll be licking his lips to prove a point or two, to come here and break that hoodoo of the century drought. I won’t be surprised if he gets a century in that first Test on Boxing Day in Centurion.

“South Africa is not an easy place to tour. Yes, they may not have AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, Steyn or Philander, but if you put that aside and just look at this South African side, if you look on paper it doesn’t look that weak to me at all.”

More than his individual brilliance, his strong character on the field as captain, his ability to encourage and motivate his players is unmatched. This has been the one thing Kohli has done excellently while off-form, he’s been able to maintain a win at all costs mentality and it shows in his team’s results even though he did not contribute much with the bat in the past two years.

“If you’re sitting in the opponent’s dressing room watching the way Virat Kohli is aggressive on the field, you might not like it. But I would want to be in a team where the captain is like that. The captain is pumped up, the captain is a whole source of energy fuelling tank which is going to be infectious to the rest of the team,” Agoram continued.

“I want to recall one incident, after losing the series in the first two Test matches against us, you could see how pumped up Virat Kohli was when they made it 2-1 at the Wanderers and everyone could hear him roar.

“That is the man Virat Kohli is. No matter whether he’s performing or not, he will maintain the same kind of energy fuel on the field and will inspire people by continuously encouraging them and trying to influence them to play positive cricket.”

If you look at the South Africa Captain, Dean Elgar, he is also a man of great resilience and he’s shown signs of it on numerous occasions. One example that stood out for me is his century in India in 2019.

“To be honest with you, Dean Elgar is also someone whom I’ve worked with who’s a very tough character. He’s an absolute fighter. If I’m going to war, the person I’m taking with me is Dean Elgar,” said Agoram.

“So, we have two captains who’re both extremely strong characters which will make this series a mouth-watering clash when you see both Virat Kohli and Dean Elgar going for the toss. You can’t expect any better, than a hard-fought and closely contested series which is going to start on 26 of December.”

Apart from Elgar and Quinton de Kock, no other Proteas cricketer has 50-plus Test matches from the team that played West Indies in June while on the other hand, India has a wealth of experience in their side.  

“If you go man-to-man, right from number 1 to number 11, South Africa will match the Indian side on each and every aspect except experience. That’s the only concern. If you look at the experience of Cheteshwar Pujara (92 Tests), the experience of Virat Kohli (97 Tests), Ravi Ashwin (81 Tests) and Ishant Sharma (105 Tests), you can see that more than seven guys in that Indian side have played 50 to 75 Test matches. Whereas with South Africa, only Dean Elgar has 50 and above Test matches.”

As a former Performance Analyst, Agoram was part of the brains behind coming up with strategies to take on other teams. I asked him what will be the right strategy to take on the number one team in the World.

“Landing the right bunch of players at the right place is going to be key,” he said.

“Also we need to make sure not to give easy boundaries to the Indian batters. When I was with the Proteas the last time India toured SA, the strategy we made was very simple. If you look at the runs we scored in boundaries in Cape Town was 70 runs, and the runs we scored in boundaries in Centurion was 100 runs, and that is exactly the difference with which we beat them in those two matches. We need to restrict the boundaries.

“The past is past and history is history. Don’t write off this India side. They are a side on a mission. South Africa will have to play really good cricket to maintain their record at home against India.

“But South African cricketers are very resilient. That resilience will be in the blend of each and every player, that is how the DNA is written for South African cricket. So, the fight will be on,” he concluded.