3rd ODI: Battered India look to test bench strength, in danger of facing series sweep in South Africa
India Today
South Africa vs India, 3rd ODI: Battered after back-to-back defeats, India will look to avoid a series sweep when they face Temba Bavuma's confident Proteas side in the final ODI in Cape Town on Sunday.
From beating South Africa in South Africa 6-1 during their last trip to battling to avoid a series sweep in the ongoing tour, India have endured a massive swing in fortunes as far as ODIs in the Rainbow Nation are concerned. KL Rahul's side will look to avoid a whitewash when they face Temba Bavuma's confident South African side in the 3rd and final ODI of the series in Cape Town on Sunday.
India have managed to win only 1 of their 7 ODI series in South Africa in the past but they have been whitewashed in a completed series. However, if the first two ODIs in Paarl are anything to go by India may return home empty-handed from the ODI series.
Not many expected India to lose the Test series but they went down 2-1 despite winning the series opener in Centurion. In the ODI series, India have paid the price for some stubborn selection and outdated tactics so far.
India's strategy looked completely out of sync with modern-day white ball game as the batters failed to keep the momentum in the middle overs and more importantly the bowlers, save Jasprit Bumrah, looked club class and without ideas of getting breakthroughs.
In two matches, India have been only able to pick up seven wickets -- four in the first game when Proteas batted first and only three in the second.
Ravichandran Ashwin and especially Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the two senior-most bowlers looked far from threatening and the young Proteas batters like Rassie van der Dussen, Janneman Malan along with seniors like Quinton de Kock have feasted on the pedestrian stuff dished out by them.
With the two having flopped completely, it needs to be seen whether Rahul Dravid, the man who is currently calling all the shots as far as tactics is concerned, takes a dim view and at least try out Jayant Yadav and Deepak Chahar in the next game which would lend some freshness to the attack.
