Former India captain Ajit Wadekar is looking forward to Team India maintaining their series winning spree at home in South Africa, despite the fact that the scheduled practice match has been canceled.
India will be touring to South Africa for a three Tests, six ODIs, and three T20Is, starting January 5. Talking about the same, Wadekar said, “You need to get adjusted to those wickets because of the bounce. With no practice games, it is going to be a little bit hard on our players. Ours is a balanced team though. At the moment, the (Indian) team is doing really well, they are a 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 further added, “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 received the Dr. Rameshwar Dayal Lifeti. e Achievement Award and on the sidelines of the event, he also praised skipper Virat Kohli terming him as “tremendously attacking cricketer.” He 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. Aggression is essential; you can’t play with inferiority complex all the time.”
India’s deputy skipper Ajinkya Rahane has been struggling will his form lately, but the legendary southpaw reckons that thing like this can happen to any “great cricketer”. He said, “There comes a time like this in every cricketer’s career (when they go through such a phase). I have seen Sunil Gavaskar going through a bad patch, it 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.”
