‘India now have a bowling attack that can pick up wickets throughout the game’: Graeme Smith

Former South African skipper Graeme Smith has credited Indian skipper Virat Kohli and his bowlers for the men in blue’s dominance over the hosts in the limited overs series.

Except the rain-affected fourth game in Johannesburg, India beat South Africa by a margin of at least six wickets or 70 runs in the ODI series. Kohli and Co continued their winning ways in the T20I series, comfortably beating the hosts by 28 runs in the first match.

The heavy defeats in the ODIs, Smith admitted in an ESPNCricinfo interview, has been a setback to their plans of building a team to win the elusive World Cup in 2019.

“There’s a lot of areas the South African team need to get right,” he said. “Yes, there were injuries to key players, but all in all, I think the batting line-up needs to be looked at in terms of the structure, where they place who. And just generally, they were poor, in terms of playing spin, in terms of tactics and execution.”

Kohli with the bat (558 runs with three hundreds in six innings) and Kuldeep Yadav (17 wickets at an economy rate of 4.62) and Yuzvendra Chahal (16 wickets at 5.02) with the ball crushed the South African challenge in the series.

“India do have a bowling line-up now that can pick up wickets throughout the game, up front with the new ball, the two spinners in the middle who were devastating in the series, and very good death bowlers,” said Smith. “They never allowed any of the South African batsmen to settle, and it almost looked like there was a lack of confidence, a lack of ideas.”

On the success of Chahal and Kuldeep, Smith said, “It’s just great to see some spin come back into the game. The mystery spinners had left the game for a period of time – the Ajmals, Warnes, Muralitharans, there’s been a little bit of a gap. So it’s great to see two guys like that come into the game. It makes the game really interesting to watch.”

‘Kohli’s the best in the world’
Smith had wondered if Kohli was a good choice as India’s long-term captain after the team’s defeats in the first two Tests earlier on the tour and his temperament in them. But the remarkable turnaround in the ODIs has seemed to change Smith’s opinion of Kohli.

“I was a little worried in the Test series, in game one and two, I thought his emotions were getting the better of him, and maybe that was starting to impact the players around him,” he said. “But I think he’s got himself under control. His own game has been incredible. He’s led from the front, he’s given India the mindset that they can play away from home, that they want to be here and in tough conditions.”

He conceded that Kohli, who has 900-plus ratings in the ICC ODI and Test rankings, is the best player in the world.

Calling for an improvement in the South African batting line-up, Smith said the batsmen could learn the construction of an innings from the Indian skipper.

“I just think in modern-day cricket, batters have forgotten how to construct innings. Getting a 40 off 20 balls is exciting but it doesn’t win you games. Someone like Kohli does that, at good rates. He knows how to construct an innings, and a lot of those youngsters need to look at that and realise how the game needs to be played.”
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