Generally, South Africa is a country where teams prefer to play with a seam heavy attack and sometimes the visiting teams go into the test matches with an all pace attack as well, because the surfaces are grassy and the spinners don’t get a lot out of it, but the former Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh wants India to play two spinners in the Cape Town test match starting tomorrow.
Recalling his performance in Cape Town many years ago where he had grabbed a 7-wicket haul in the game, Harbhajan Singh said that Cape Town is one of the very few surfaces in South Africa which actually help the spinners a little bit as well and not just the fast bowlers.
However, Harbhajan’s suggestion might not be something that the Indian team management would consider because India doesn’t have two of their three premier test match spinners available on this tour. Ravindra Jadeja is the first choice spinner for India whenever they travel overseas with Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel as backups.
Both Jadeja and Axar are injured at the moment and Ashwin is India’s main spinner on the ongoing South Africa tour backed up by another off-spinner Jayant Yadav. It’s highly unlikely that India will include two off-spinners in the playing XI in the Cape Town Test.
India should stick with Rishabh Pant: Harbhajan Singh
Harbhajan, in his video preview of the test match which he uploaded on his youtube channel, also talked about the wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant calling him a quality player and crediting him for his phenomenal performances overseas, but also insisting at the same time that Pant needs to sort his shot selection.
Rishabh Pant had played a rash shot in the second innings of the Wanderers test match at a very crucial point and not only was he criticized by the Indian fans for that, but even the Indian head coach Rahul Dravid had also said that Pant needs to understand when to attack and when not.
Harbhajan said that India should stick with Pant and play him again in the Cape Town test because he has got the potential and he has done the job for India in the past, but Pant himself should understand that he can’t just come out and throw his bat at absolutely everything. He can be positive while defending too, as being positive doesn’t only mean playing shots.
