: IND vs SA Preview: Pacers and middle-order make India favourites in decider #IndiaNEWS #Cricket Bengaluru: A lot of grey areas are yet to be addressed but a young Indian team, with an admirable collective

IND vs SA Preview: Pacers and middle-order make India favourites in decider #IndiaNEWS #Cricket
Bengaluru: A lot of grey areas are yet to be addressed but a young Indian team, with an admirable collective temperament, will start as favourite in the series-deciding fifth T20 International against South Africa here on Sunday.
In a space of eight days, this Indian team has played four games. It fielded an identical XI, which is in sync with Rahul Dravids school of continuity, seen the nadir in the first two games, only to break its own record of highest margin of victories over the Proteas by 47 runs in the third game and by 82 runs in the fourth.
With Dinesh Karthik doing exactly what is expected of him and Harshal Patel and Avesh Khan also hitting the straps, the Indian fans would want to see Yuzvendra Chahal perform a trick or two at his IPL home ground in a match that matters the most. Therefore, when the teams step out on the M Chinnaswamy Stadium turf, the side that looked jaded and overcooked in the first two games will start as overwhelming favourites as the South Africans have already lost the plot.
If Temba Bavuma is unable to recover, they will miss a leader more than the batter. And suddenly in the last two games, the batting has looked iffy on tracks that have variable bounce, which has made this Indian attack look way more lethal. Call it strangely pleasant, but it remains a fact that in this series a lot of things havent exactly gone as per plan but yet India have managed to level the series after being 0-2 down.
A young captain who, perhaps, would have liked a few days in his hometown in Rourkee had there not been a pressure from one of the stakeholders to have at least a few stars in the absence of safe box-office bets like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma or Jasprit Bumrah.
Neither has Pants captaincy been exceptional nor has his similar pattern of dismissals inspired confidence but India have somehow managed to pull through. If they finally win the series the young man would be in that leadership mix alongside Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul when the next transition in Indian cricket happens after the 2023 ODI World Cup.
If coach Dravid wanted to check out whether there is a possibility to tinker with the existing top three, the troika of Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shreyas Iyer havent exactly fitted into the jigsaw puzzle.
In top flight cricket, Gaikwad wont get those couple of uncapped domestic bowlers whom he can bully. On the contrary, he could get bullied by express pace. Ishan Kishan has a limited range of strokes and one shouldnt go by the volume of runs scored in this series as the extra bounce and pace on Australian wickets will be a difficult proposition. Shreyas Iyer got a full series but he should be the first one to admit that he has blown it with both hands and when India next play against Ireland at Malahide, his place will go to Suryakumar Yadav, considered a way better T20 proponent.

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