The Indian Test batting line up is set to bear a new look in the upcoming South Africa series. Naman Agarwal takes a look at the challenges that lie ahead for the younger Indian batters and what this series can mean for the Indian Test side in the long run.
Change is the only constant in life – this is a universal truth that almost all know, but not many are comfortable accepting. Heading into the Boxing Day Test in Centurion, India will have to make peace with this fact whether they like it or not as they will be without two senior statesmen who, for a major part of the last decade, have either carried or have been carried by the Indian Test batting line up.
In recent years, India has occasionally floated the idea of dropping Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane from the Test squad. They have implemented this idea several times, or at least half of them, as some tests have been done in the last three years, but one out of two they did not make it. However, abandoning both offers was previously thought to be a step too far and too inconvenient a change, despite steadily declining profits.
It started with the tour of West Indies in July this year, when Pujara was dropped and Shubman Gill started a new journey as Test No. 3. Ajinkya Rahane was part of that team but there was a hunch that another failure would force the change-averse Indian management to move on as well.
Cheteshwar Pujara’s last Test was the 2023 WTC Final against Australia. [Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images]
Gill is expected to remain at number three, while Shreyas Iyer is the frontrunner to replace Rahane at number five. Meanwhile, Yashasvi Jaiswal will continue to be Rohit Sharma’s top partner and give Gill scope to carve a new home in Tests.
Ajinkya Rahane has been dropped following his poor outing in the West Indies. [Photo by RANDY BROOKS/AFP via Getty Images]
Iyer played in 9 of the 10 Test matches in the subcontinent, averaging 49, 50 and 100 appearances. He has only played one Test outside Asia. He was knocked out in Birmingham by 39-year-old James Anderson. Iyer’s defiance of the short ball and his stoic disregard for its existence has been well documented. A fellow Mumbai batsman and likely to be a substitute in the middle, he was known for his penchant for pace and bounce of the ball. The same cannot certainly be said about Ayer. And South Africa is a seam bowler’s paradise, offering seam, swing, pace, bounce variability and all the other kinds of support that make a batsman’s life difficult.
If Iyer can adapt and overcome these challenges here in South Africa, India won’t have to worry too much about Test 5 in the coming years. If not, the game of musical chairs could end, especially when it comes to international tours.
Despite his talent and ability, Gill averages 32 runsin Test cricket. There are only three other Indian batsmen who have played more Test matches than Gill and have batting averages in the top three, but their batting averages are low. Some have suggested that the middle order could be a more natural home for him in Test cricket since he made his Test debut in the 2020-21 Australia series. Opening at No. 3 may not represent a huge change in how players need to prepare or what they need to do, but it still does mean that Gill is an approximation of his expected intermediate home, which he calls completed.
It is safe to assume that he will be a very different No. 3 from the previous two stars India had in this position, Pujara and Rahul Dravid. The latter is currently the coach of the Indian team and has been closely following Gill’s journey since his U19 days. Regardless of the difference in style, if Gill can hold his own in this series and give India a sense of security close to what the current coach is providing at No. 3, then Gill will achieve his goal of becoming an All-Star. I’m going to do it. Another step closer. A long-anticipated format beast.
Jaishwal, who made his international debut in 2023, started as happily as possible, earning the third-highest score for an Indian player on his Test debut. Jaiswal completed his batting school in Mumbai and went on to achieve great results at all levels of cricket. He has already shown that he belongs here. However, in South Africa, it is very difficult to lead the batting lineup against big players. Over the years in Test cricket, 18 Indians have spearheaded the batting lineup in Tests in South Africa. Gautam Gambhir is the only one among them to have averaged more than 40 and scored more than 100 points. He faces big challenges.
India’s Test tour to South Africa was always memorable. From Kohli’s resignation as captain after the last match to the emergence of Bumrah, who spearheaded the Test in the match before that, it usually creates a story that will be remembered for years to come. This time we will talk about the long-awaited guard change in India’s batting line-up. If things go well, India could resume its path to becoming the Test powerhouse it was in the late 2010s. If not, it will be a new entry in the long list of teams stumbling during Test cricket’s transition period.
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