“I think the workload also becomes slightly easier to manage with five bowlers, and when you have that kind of quality, you might as well use it”
India have played five bowlers in each of their last 15 Tests, but with the allrounder Ravindra Jadeja injured and out of the tour, it will be a less-than-straightforward decision to stick with that combination in South Africa. Nonetheless, Rahul’s response suggested that five bowlers remains India’s preferred option.
“I think more teams have started playing [five bowlers], because, you know, every team wants to pick up 20 wickets, and that’s the only way you can win a Test match,” he said. “We’ve definitely used that tactic, and it’s helped us in every Test match that we’ve played away from India. I think the workload also becomes slightly easier to manage with five bowlers, and when you have that kind of quality, you might as well use it.”
One of the challenges of a South Africa tour, Rahul said, was getting used to the bounce of those pitches, which he suggested tends to be of a spongier nature than the bounce in Australia – at least in the early part of Test matches.
“I haven’t played a lot of games here in South Africa, but from my experience, I think sometimes the pitches can be a little bit challenging because of the tennis-ball bounce,” he said. “We’ve played in Australia where the pitches are fast and bouncy, but here it can be a bit spongy in the first couple of days, and then it starts to quicken up. So when I played last time, each time the wicket was a bit difficult, and you had to understand and adjust according to that, so that becomes a huge challenge for both batters and bowlers.”
“Look, I think Duanne Olivier will know these conditions a lot better than us,” Rahul said. “Yes, even the last time we played here, the wicket started off a bit slow and then quickened up, and then got slow again. I think from whatever information we can gather about the Centurion pitch, it’s been that kind of a pitch. And even in the centre-wicket practice, we experienced the same things, and we tried to prepare accordingly.”
Source: ESPN Crickinfo