Now or Never: India's momentous opportunity to rewrite history in the South Africa Test series
South Africa.
Since 1992, India have played 23 Tests in South Africa and won only four. They’ve lost 12, with seven draws and what will really hurt was their last visit.
Exactly a year ago, India beat South Africa quite comfortably in Centurion — where they will play the first of only two Tests on this tour, with Cape Town being the other host — and then went on to blow the next two opportunities.
Keegan Petersen was a stand-out young batsman on that tour and India will remember beating his bat repeatedly without getting him out soon enough. That Test tour also culminated in Viral Kohli giving up the Test captaincy, and, to that end, this truncated series is a chance to set things right.
India do not play South Africa nearly as often as they should, given how good Test matches between the two teams are, and there may not be another chance for this generation of players to create history.
The 2023 World Cup at home was one moment in time where Rohit Sharma, Kohli and friends had an opportunity to ensure that they built a legacy that would outlast their careers and even lives. But, falling short at the final hurdle, having breezed past every obstacle put before them hurt.
A lot. Rohit has taken to Instagram to explain what that loss meant and how his world had changed but he did not need to.
Anyone who watched India lose to Australia at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad knew, and felt the team’s loss.
For the same group to get another shot at redemption so soon is no bad thing.
India are in prime position to become only the second Asian team to beat South Africa at home. Unusually, Sri Lanka are the one team from the subcontinent to get across the line.
