***Official*** South Africa in India 2015

[honestbharani]

It would be cool to see RSA field all 4 pacers against England in their home series later this year and leave the spin duties to the trio of Duminy, Elgar and Faf. All 3 varieties of spin covered in their top 6. Amazing.

 

[harsh.ag]

Dropping Philander for the spin combo of Tahir and Piedt is the only thing that doesn't sound overtly stupid. Very, very risky though.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Philander will be fine. I expect him to do well. He bowled way better than his figures suggested in SL, and was good in UAE too.

 

[Marius]

Dropping Philander for the spin combo of Tahir and Piedt is the only thing that doesn't sound overtly stupid. Very, very risky though.

Yeah, I'm not sure it's a good idea.

As I said, SA has won in India with only one spinner - we can do it again.

And to be honest, although I like Tahir, he is dire in Tests. He should only play if they're playing on a real snakepit.

 

[CricAddict]

It would be cool to see RSA field all 4 pacers against England in their home series later this year and leave the spin duties to the trio of Duminy, Elgar and Faf. All 3 varieties of spin covered in their top 6. Amazing.

Add to it the right arm mediums of van Zyl and ABD. Just a left arm medium pace bowler missing. ABD can do that if needed.

 

[Contra]

As I said, SA has won in India with Dale Steyn's match winning spells - we can do it again..

Completely agree with you on that.

 

[Pratters]

People underestimate Philander's effectiveness. He is amazing.

 

[marc71178]

Except for when he isn't you mean? I'd not expect him to make a big impact in this series to be honest, even if he was coming off a good recent run of form. His last 2 years are anything but that.

 

[Pratters]

Good debating point, Philander. He pitches the ball accurately and it results in wickets. Had a poor 2014 but the 3 tests in 2015, he has brought he economy back to how it used to be. If he can keep it in the right spots, he will trouble the Indian batsmen a fair bit, as a few of them (Kohli, Sharma, even Rahane) tend to poke at balls outside off.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

But in those 3 matches (against easier opposition than India at home) he only took 2 wickets
I agree his control was there again, but the wickets weren't coming to him.

 

[Pratters]

In the last series in Bangladesh, he bowled far better than Morkel did. In the first test, he took 2 wickets while Steyn and Harmer took 3 each. Steyn was more expensive. Just the one inning in the first test. In the second test, he didn't take wickets but bowled economically in 11 overs (just the one inning again). He was fine, I would say.

 

[NUFAN]

People underestimate Philander's effectiveness. He is amazing.

His batting is fairly important too. The tail looks much longer without him in the team. Not the main reason to pick someone obviously.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Pratters makes a good point about Kohli and Rahane's off stump airy-fairiness being ideal for Philander to exploit. They handled him brilliantly in SA, but I think he can do well.

Gonna stick my neck out and say Philander will do way better than expected and Steyn will average 40+ with the ball.

 

[Contra]

I've never rated Philander all that highly, and I honestly don't expect him to be a force on this tour, if India do funky **** with their batting order than I can't really say, but if senses prevail and India bat their best top 6 I don't see any reason for them to struggle against Philander.

 

[Gavaskar]

If you think about it other than amla and devilliers the rest of south african batsman haven't done much in asian conditions yet. It will be interesting to see how well they play mishra and ashwin.

I hope BK plays the first match and scores some runs so that the team will play him as an all rounder rather than bhajji or binny. Then India will actually be using a legit 5 bowler strategy. Binny is a solid part timer at best. Although he has been pretty useful so far tbh.

 

[kingkallis]

Yeah, Rabada may well make his debut in India if one of the quicks gets injured.

Not sure we should play two spinners, we've done well in India with only one spinner before.

Tahir and Duminy will be enough.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

OS hates Steyn.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I need to bring back the #SteynAverageTracker which I used in the SA tour of 2013. It went up to 250 at one point.

 

[Jono]

then he won them the series. so don't.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Yeah. Series average was 270 or something. Next thing you know Boom he's taken 6 wickets.