India vs South Africa: Tough for India to beat Proteas on their own home soil, says Jacques Kallis

Former South Africa cricketer Jacques Kallis believes that while India are a good team, beating South Africa in South Africa will pose a different challenge altogether.

India have largely faced tough competition in their previous tours to South Africa. The last time they toured South Africa was in 2021-22 and went onto lose the Test series 2-1 and ODI series 3-0. The upcoming series gets underway with the first T20I in Durban on Sunday.

IND vs SA: Biggest controversies and top moments from past series

India will have three separate captains for the series. While Suryakumar Yadav will lead the Men in Blue in T20Is, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma will captain the side in ODIs and Tests respectively.

Kallis expects a closely fought contest between the two teams.

“This is a good Indian team, but South Africa is tough to beat in South Africa. Centurion will probably suit South Africa and Newlands will probably suit India. I think it will be a good series, and it will come down to one or two sessions that one team might play better than the other. I think it would be a closely fought contest,” Kallis told news agency PTI.

Kallis, meanwhile, felt that too much cricket was affecting all-rounders in modern day cricket.

Sir Garfield Sobers remains the greatest all-rounder according to some, although modern day cricket has produced all-rounders like Kallis himself or Andrew Flintoff.

Quick Reads

View All

'Won't require surgery...': Real reason behind Jasprit Bumrah's absence from 5th Test revealed in new report

PCB bans players from WCL over India-Pakistan match controversy

“It is a tough question to answer, all-rounders don’t come around every day. There aren’t many throughout the history. Lot of things, amount of cricket that is played certainly plays a role,” said Kallis.

The three T20Is will be followed by as many ODIs and two Tests, with the series scheduled to conclude on 7 January.