Clayton Murzello: India's fast train to success

Bhuvneshwar Kumar left celebrates the dismissal of SA batsman AB de Villiers with skipper Virat Kohli and KL Rahul during the Joburg Test last week PicAFPIndia deserved all the accolades they received for winning the third and final Test against South Africa in Johannesburg on a brute of a wicket If we see more of such horror strips the International Cricket Council could consider introducing a bravery section to their annual awards That the Indians claimed 60 wickets in three Tests proves that the series was far more closely fought than the 21 series scoreline suggestsEach of the three games was riveting and save the pitch in the final Test at the Wanderers fiveday cricket was wellendorsed at a time when Test crickets popularity and future is questioned challenged and dissected Like in every series there are aspects to rue and most pundits felt the Indian thinktank erred in leaving Ajinkya Rahane out of the side for the first two Tests Rahane added yeast to the rue factor as it were by scoring an invaluable 48 in Indias second inningsTo be fair India were in a damnedifyoudodamnedifyoudont situation Had they included Rahane for the Cape Town and Centurion Tests and the Mumbai batsman failed the critics would have pounced on them asking why an outofform was includedIt must be remembered that Rahane was a complete failure in the home series against Sri Lanka In five innings his best effort was 10 in the third Test at New Delhi This gave rise to questions about whether he would actually make the tour Also there were no tour games to gauge his form Yes Rahane appears far better equipped to handle overseas conditions but Rohit Sharma got a century and two halfcenturies in the three innings he featured in during the home series against Sri Lanka and that should count for something on a tour with no practice gamesWhat could be considered a blunder was the noninclusion of Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the second Test Six wickets at Cape Town would have made him a certainty Lets not forget he put on 99 with the perky Hardik Pandya for the eighth wicket But Bhuvneshwar was dropped and in came Ishant Sharma It was later revealed that Ishant was ill and hence missed the opening Test Does that mean Bhuvneshwar would have not made the playing XI had Ishant been fine It could well beBhuvneshwar then returned for the final Test where India didnt go in with their top spinner Ravichandran Ashwin It was a gamble that paid off but its unlikely to happen again and it shouldnt happen again because spin is an integral part of the game Also good sides dont become great sides if they lack variety Coming back to Ashwin who is to say he wouldnt have troubled the South Africans at the Wanderers Being a tall bowler he would have been dangerous with his bounce and those cracks might have augured well for his artilleryOverall Indias pace attack looks fully loaded and things will get interesting as the battle for places gathers steam One cant think of another outstanding India pace pack than the current one It reminds me of the trio that did duty on the 2007 tour of England where Zaheer Khan S Sreesanth and RP Singh contributed to Indias series win under Rahul Dravids captaincyIn 2007 England skipper Michael Vaughan was expected to dish out a bit of praise for India at the press conference after the final day of the Oval Test but he surprised us seated journalists when he said We have all been asked different questions when we have batted about the angle at which we have had to face the leftarmers That is something that we have not seen before and it is important that we learn from these kinds of experiencesThat coming from a man who led England to a historic Ashes victory after 18 years at the same venue two seasons before was high praise indeed India tour England this summer and Joe Roots Englishmen cannot afford to ignore Indias pace strength But what good will the bowlers influence be without the batsmen putting up tall scores Generally they were loose in South Africa and they need to emulate their captain by putting a high price on their wickets Testing wickets cannot be an excuse for poor shots after allThe best opening stand for the series was 30 Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan at Cape Town so there is a problem to be set right at the top Vijay will cringe when he looks at his SA tour average of 1700 as compared to 9733 in his previous series against Sri Lanka at home KL Rahul is too good a player to end up averaging 750 from four visits to the crease Pujara will always be remembered for his fighting 50 in Johannesburg but he would have been happier with better scores in the previous two Tests All said and done Indias series loss was no disgrace Kohlis men have made a statement mdash well have our bad days but we wont stop fightingmiddays group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news current affairs from Mumbai local news crime news and breaking headlines hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go