Indian batting line-up needs to get its mojo back against a resurgent South Africa to regain the lost ground on rather unfamiliar SuperSport Park conditions when the two teams clash the third T20I in Centurion Wednesday.
Since 2009, India have played only one T20I at this venue, which they lost by six wickets in 2018 and have only one survivor from that squad in this side -- Hardik Pandya.
Along with that unfamiliarity factor, India will also grapple with the ordinary form of their batters, particularly when the pitch in Centurion is touted to be similar to the one at Gqeberha – quick and bouncy.
In the second T20I, India batters struggled against South African pacers upfront, getting restricted to 124 for six, and Centurion has similar characteristics.
The problem starts from the top – more precisely with Abhishek Sharma, whose extended lean run with the bat has now snowballed into a serious concern. He is in desperate need of a good outing here before the management thinks of juggling the combination.
Even now, they can think of giving the job of partnering Sanju Samson at the top to Tilak Varma and bring in Ramandeep Singh in the middle to add more muscle to the unit.
However, the senior batters like skipper Suryakumar Yadav, Pandya and Rinku Singh too cannot absolve themselves of the blame entirely for India's struggles.
Both Suryakumar and Rinku have shown only fleeting images of their prowess here while Pandya made 39 in the second match but he consumed 45 balls for it.
In fact, the power-hitter took 28 balls to find his first boundary and, again, could not find the ropes between balls 39 and 45.
So, these three batters will have to chip in more to support in the in-form Samson or to carry India to a strong total even when the Kerala man has a vapid day.
Similarly, pacers Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan had two contrasting games. Arshdeep returned with figures of 1 for 25 at Durban, but in the second game he had stats of 1 for 41.
The left-arm pacer's third and fourth overs which went for 28 runs – including four fours in an over against Tristan Stubbs – made a deep impact on the low-scoring match.
So, they will be eager to change the script here, unless the management looks at other options such as Yash Dayal or Vysakh Vijaykumar.
However, the efforts of Varun Chakravarthy, who bagged a maiden fifer in the previous match, and Ravi Bishnoi over the last two matches have been outstanding and the spinners will be looking for an encore in the third match to hand back the advantage to India.
The expected bounce and pace on the pitch here will be an encouraging factor as well for the Indian duo.
From a batting perspective, South Africa too face a similar issue as senior pros skipper Aiden Markram, David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen are yet to fire in this series.
They required runs from less-pedigreed batters Tristan Stubbs and Gerald Coetzee to get over the line in the second contest, and the Proteas will certainly cherish a heftier contribution from their veterans, especially against Indian spinners.
