The Cape Town Test between India and South Africa that was held earlier this month has become part of cricket history. The contest ended in the blink of an eye with India storming to a memorable win inside, wait for it, five sessions.
It’s the shortest completed Test in history and India won on a pitch that was labelled ‘unsatisfactory’ by the International Cricket Council (ICC). Fast bowlers dominated the exchanges even though South Africa batter Aiden Markram managed to hit a century (106) on it with Virat Kohli’s 46 the next best score in the match.
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After the match, during a media interaction, India captain Rohit Sharma said he wasn’t averse to playing a match on such wickets. However, he also added that the hue and cry that follows when a pitch in India ends up being spin-friendly should also stop.
England will be touring India for a five-Test series and batting legend Kevin Pietersen has warned them to gear up for a trial by spin considering how Rohit and his men were tested in Cape Town.
“So the question is, can England deliver with the spinners they have? That’s going to be what dictates the series. It’s gonna spin,” Pietersen wrote in his column for The Times.
“I actually played in Vizag (Visakhapatnam) the other day. It spun and bounced in a T20 game! Given what happened in Cape Town the other week (India won on a pitch favourable to fast bowlers that was marked poor), they won’t be shy in preparing something that spins, and they will say, ‘Let’s see what you’ve got,” he added.
England last toured India in 2020-21 and lost the four-match series 1-3. In fact, they haven’t won a Test series on Indian soil since 2012-13.
The Ben Stokes-led England are in Abu Dhabi for a training camp to gear up for the India tour. The series starts from January 25 in Hyderabad.
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