Rahul ready for unique challenges posed by Tests in South Africa

India’s vice-captain KL Rahul bats during a net session at the Centurion Park in Gauteng, South Africa, yesterday. (BCCI)

India vice-captain K L Rahul knows all too well the unique challenges batting in South Africa brings but says helping the team to get off to a solid start will be a key ingredient to victory ahead of the first Test in Pretoria tomorrow. India have never won a Test series in South Africa, but after recent successes in Australia and England are buoyed by their ability to compete on the road. Rahul concedes South Africa present an altogether different trial though, especially for the batsmen, but believes India are ready. “The pace and bounce in the pitches here is very different to every other country,” Rahul told reporters yesterday. “That is why it was important we came here earlier to try to adjust to the conditions. We’ve had a lot of sessions in the middle to create match situations and practised with a lot of intensity. It has been a great week of preparation. “The pitches can be challenging because of the ‘tennis ball’ bounce. When we played in Australia they are fast and bouncy, but here it can be a bit spongy in the first few days and then to starts to quicken up. South Africa is an exciting place to play cricket and comes as a challenge for both batters and bowlers.” India did not have an opening stand of more than 30 in their last series in South Africa in 2018, where Rahul averaged only 7.50 in his four innings with a top score of 16. “You need to be a lot more focussed and disciplined in your mind here, and be a lot more patient and wait to score your runs,” Rahul said. The prospect of making history as the first Indian touring side to win a series in South Africa is a tantalising one for the players. “It is a huge series for us as a team,” Rahul added. “We have won in England and Australia, but we have not won a series here and that gives us extra motivation. We need to learn from mistakes in the last tour and do better this time.” Rahul conceded that the decision on who will bat at number five will be a very, very difficult one to make. Ajinkya Rahane has been batting at number five for long but his indifferent run of form means Hanuma Vihari and Shreyas Iyer have emerged as contenders for the spot. “It is a very, very difficult decision to make. I think Ajinkya has been a very important part of our Test team and has played very, very crucial knocks in his career. In the last 15-18 months, if I think back, his knock in Melbourne was really, really crucial and helped us win a Test match. The partnership with Pujara in the second innings at Lord’s, where he got a fifty, was really important and that ended up in us winning the Test match. So, he has been a key player for us in that middle order and is a very, very strong player,” said Rahul in the virtual press conference. “Shreyas has taken his chances and played a brilliant knock in Kanpur and got a hundred, so he’s very exciting. Hanuma has done the same for us. It’s a tough decision and will start having a chat today or tomorrow and you will get to know in coming days’ time.” Rahul fully backed the five-bowler strategy which has given India success in recent overseas tours. “I think most teams have started playing four bowlers and every team wants to pick up 20 wickets and that’s the only way you can win a Test match. We have definitely used that tactic and it has helped us in every Test match that we have played away from India. So, the workload also becomes slightly easier to manage that way with five bowlers and when you have that kind of quality, you might as well use it,” he said.