IND vs SA Live, Cape Town Test: Dravid-Kohli’s big confusion – In all probabilities, Mohammed Siraj is set to be ruled out of the Cape Town Test as he is yet to recover from the hamstring injury. But the biggest headache for captain Virat Kohli and coach Rahul Dravid is who is going to replace him — Ishant Sharma or Umesh Yadav? Follow India vs South Africa Live Updates on InsideSport.IN.
Ishant Sharma’s immense experience might gain precedence over Umesh Yadav’s classical outswingers when Indian team management zeroes in on an injured Mohammed Siraj’s replacement for the series-deciding final Test against South Africa.
Siraj, who sustained a hamstring strain while bowling on the first evening of the second Test, managed only 15.5 overs in the two innings and coach Rahul Dravid admitted that his injury did affect the team strategy while defending 240 in the fourth innings.
IND vs SA Live: Dravid-Kohli confused, Ishant Sharma or Umesh Yadav in Cape Town Test as Mohammed Siraj all but ruled out
IND vs SA Live: Dravid-Kohli confused, Ishant Sharma or Umesh Yadav in Cape Town Test as Mohammed Siraj all but ruled out
Dravid had said that it is difficult to commit whether Siraj will get fit in next few days as hamstring injuries don’t heal that easily. They require extensive rest and rehabilitation, more so for fast bowlers, who have way more workload than batters.
In this backdrop, India have two options for the Newlands Test starting January 11. One is 33-year-old Ishant, who hasn’t been in the best of forms but has experience of more than 100 Tests and is a workhorse.
The other is 34-year old Umesh, who has 51 Tests under his belt and in the recent past has been a better performer than Ishant, who seemed to have also lost out on a bit of pace with age catching up.
Touchdown Cape Town 📍🇿🇦#TeamIndia #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/TpMtyPK9FG
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 8, 2022
IND vs SA Live: Dravid-Kohli confused, Ishant Sharma or Umesh Yadav in Cape Town Test as Mohammed Siraj all but ruled out
IND vs SA: Who could replace injured Mohammed Siraj in Cape Town?
- Ishant Sharma, the most experienced player in the squad, is warming benches after a string of poor shows. The other option is Umesh Yadav, who impressed against New Zealand.
- Cape Town is considered pacers’ paradise with swing and bounce for seamers.
- In India’s four-pacer template, the option could be to go with Ishant Sharma, who is more of a restrictive bowler than an attacking one. In the 2nd Test, India conceded a lot of runs in boundaries going for the attack.
- His height could be a weapon 6’3″ height could be helpful for India against Proteas.
- On the other hand, Umesh Yadav could be an asset with his outswingers. With grass expected on the pitch, he could be another attacking option in Siraj’s absence.
IND vs SA Live: Dravid-Kohli confused, Ishant Sharma or Umesh Yadav in Cape Town Test as Mohammed Siraj all but ruled out
However, both Dravid and skipper Virat Kohli, who everyone expects would make a comeback from his back injury in the final game, may prefer the lanky Delhi speedster for multiple reasons.
One of the biggest reasons could be his near 6 feet 3 and half inch height, which might help in creating those awkward lengths for the Proteas batters, something that the home team pacers like Marco Jansen and Duanne Olivier have enjoyed.
“It just felt like the ball seemed to misbehave a little bit more for them, and that could be [because of the] fact of the height. On up-and-down wickets sometimes just having that extra height might tend to make a little bit of a difference, so it just felt for us [that] the balls didn’t misbehave as much,” Rahul Dravid had said.
IND vs SA Live: Dravid-Kohli confused, Ishant Sharma or Umesh Yadav in Cape Town Test as Mohammed Siraj all but ruled out
Even former chairman of selectors MSK Prasad agreed that Ishant should be the choice. “We missed a tall fast bowler in Johannesburg and the only one we have is Ishant. On these kinds of tracks, he is my choice ahead of Umesh. Had it been an Indian track which is rugged and feels like dustbowl, Umesh would be my ‘go to’ man,” MSK Prasad said.
The ideal length on South African tracks is somewhere in between back of the length (short) and good length (6 metre).
IND vs SA: Effect of High Tide and Low Tide Factor
Just like at the erstwhile WACA ground in Perth where the afternoon sessions used to help the swing bowlers with lateral movement due to the ‘Freemantle Doctor’ — afternoon sea breeze that blew across the ground –, some of the sessions at Cape Town are guided by the effect of High and Low Tides, assessed Dasgupta, who had played here in 2002.
“Newlands Stadium is beside the sea and there are times when there is a High Tide and in that case, there is more movement in the air and off the pitch available.
“This is because when tide is high, the temperature gets a bit cooler and hence there is some amount of nip in the air. Exactly opposite happens in case of a low tide when it becomes a bit warmer and there might not be much for the bowlers.
“In both cases, Ishant is a better bet to bowl attacking or defensive as per team’s needs,” Dasgupta said.
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