South Africa vs India: Can Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill step up during Cape Town Test?

India’s tours to South Africa are like primetime soap operas without the endless drag. They all look and feel the same. Just the names and characters change. The latest trip is unfolding like the nine others to the country. The usual themes have played out—lost opportunities, false hopes and swift implosions, the pain numbed somewhat by stirring individual performances. A twist here, a tweak there, the script takes the much-trodden route. So just replace Sachin Tendulkar’s Centurion masterclass with KL Rahul’s virtuosic hundred at the same venue; just erase Javagal Srinath’s name and scrawl that of Bumrah. Instead of Durban 1996 read Centurion 2023.

Now, they reach Cape Town, a venue that evokes the splendor of nature as well as bitter memories. Twice have India landed in the Western Cape with the hope of conquering the final frontier; twice they left the city battered. Once, they came within touching distance, only to be blunted by the greatest all-rounder of this century. The Indian audience of a certain vintage could read an invisible sentence— “Cape of Missed Chances”— on the face of the imposing Table Mountain.

At least this time, they are saved from the pain of not winning a series here. The final frontier remains unconquered, giving a sense of context to the next tour, but there are other races to be won, other questions remain to be answered. The first and foremost — are India reacquiring their poor traveller’s tag under Rahul Dravid?

In the last six Tests outside of the West Indies, his men have lost five games. Two of them were one-off Tests; one was his first tour in charge, and the sixth was the Centurion one. So it’s harsh to presume that they are sore travelers yet. But the reputation is quickly developing and the next overseas assignment is the long sojourn Down Under at the end of the year.

Some old flaws have resurfaced. Like the snap-of-the-fingers collapses, inconsistent top-three, lack of runs down the order, inability to polish off the lower-order, listless support bowlers, over-dependent on individual performances, the symptoms point to the return 90s syndrome.

Just when it seemed that the malaise had been wiped off, another variant had sprung, another wave gripping India’s Test team. In these six Tests, India have shuffled different openers and tried four different combinations. It could be down to loss of form, or injuries, only once has a pair of openers strung 45-plus runs (Mayank Agarwal and Rahul in Centurion 2021-22).

So the sooner Yashasvi Jaiswal settles down, the better it is for both the team and individual. The princely yield in the Caribbeans would all be forgotten if he continues to struggle against quality seamers in hostile conditions. The critics would instantly ridicule him as a flat-track bully.

The fate is similar for a clutch of other youngsters teething in, and finding their ways in Test cricket. It’s high time Shubman Gill came up with a performance that justifies the hype around him as the inheritor of Virat Kohli ’s mantle. Ditto Shreyas Iyer. Combine the stutter of the youth brigade with the stumble of Rohit Sharma in Centurion, India’s batting in this series has been just about Rahul and Virat Kohli. Like in the past days—Tendulkar and Mohammed Azharuddin, or just Tendulkar alone (as had often been the case).

Centurion: India’s batter Shubman Gill being bowled out by South Africa’s bowler Marco Jansen during the third day of the first Test cricket match between India and South Africa, at SuperSport Park Stadium, in Centurion, Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023. (PTI Photo/Atul Yadav)

The plight is similar on the pace-bowling front too.

At SuperSport Park it was just Bumrah; the second most incisive bowler was off-spinner Ravi Ashwin. Just as Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble were back in the day. Mohammed Siraj was damningly erratic; Prasidh Krishna is uncut and needs to put in hard yards in the domestic cricket to harness his gifts; Shardul Thakur was all bluster and no blast.

The bench does not offer much hope either. Mukesh Kumar could be as good or bad a pick as Prasidh. The selectors summoning Avesh Khan to the Test squad is a definite sign of panic. Whether he is handed the debut or not, India’s once stacked stable of thoroughbreds seems thinly-stocked. The digression of Ishant Sharma, the baffling omission of Umesh Yadav and the non-emergence of Navdeep Saini has made Mohammed Shami’s injury-induced layoff look like a vacuum that cannot be filled.

Again, you could strike parallels with the past. Zaheer Khan limps off and suddenly India looks beaten already.

The comeback, thus, looks unlikely though not impossible. They could take refuge from the admirable collection of comeback narratives outside the subcontinent from the past. Oval 2021, Melbourne 2021, Durban 2010, Perth 2008, the years and venues leap off from the memory. Not all those teams were flawless, but they found courage in adversity.

Whether Rohit’s men — a team in flux and without key figures (Shami and Rishabh Pant) — have the courage and quality to bounce back will define his captaincy. The return of all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja would strengthen the team, but one man alone cannot make a drastic difference.

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That’s the curse of two-episode Test rubbers too. It is a blur, unfolding so rapidly that the thrill and drama of comeback narratives is nonexistent. Even before a team settles down, even before they acclimatize to the weather and wind, even before they grasp the conditions and size up the bowlers, they have boarded their flights home.

For the (niche) audience, it’s like the five-act play is crunched to two acts because there would be a bigger show in town in a fortnight, or there is little commercial viability, or there simply is no need for a longer fare. So five days after their Centurion capitulation, they reach Cape Town, 1,455 kilometres down to the tip of the continent. And in this time, India have to quickly solve the same issues that have crippled the captains of the past too. Lest, they would leave these shores with another wave of pain and regret.

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