ME News Bureau: Previous India captain Ajit Wadekar is confident that India will interpret their splendid execution at home into something staggering in South Africa despite the fact that not playing a training match is matter of concern.
India will visit South Africa for a three-Test, six-ODI and three-Twenty20 arrangement, beginning January 5.
“At the moment, the (Indian) team is doing really well, they are very balanced team and they also have (enough) experience to play on any kind of tracks. Their past track record suggests that they seem to be in good form and they should be able to do well,” he said.
“South Africa is always a tough country to beat. They are tough guys and the wickets are a lot faster. India will have to go there well-prepared,” Wadekar said
“Virat is made of a different mould entirely. He is a tremendously attacking cricketer. The present day game requires that type of a cricketer because without that you won’t be able to attract crowds. Not only is he attacking, but he is a cricketer who can play for the team. He does not like losing,” he added.
Asked does aggression help Kohli, Wadekar said, “I suppose so. Aggression is essential; you can’t play with inferiority complex all the time.”
India Vice-Captain Ajinkya Rahane has been struggling and could not do well in the Sri Lanka series, but Wadekar feels that a thing like this can happen to any “great cricketer”.
Rahane is one of the top cricketers India has produced and he will definitely come over the bad patch. But the sooner he gets over the bad form, the better it will be for Indian cricket. He should keep on playing because if he keeps playing, he does not loose confidence, I am sure he is going to get back in the runs,” Wadekar added.
During the early times, scores of 200-250 were enough for the teams to win ODIs, but now batsmen are themselves hitting 200s in ODIs.
Quizzed about it, Wadekar said, “The wickets are getting better these days and the bowling attacks are becoming stereotypes, so it has become much easier for the batsmen to score runs. But batsmen are also more skilled than we were”.
