Wasim Jaffer is one of the nine Indian batsmen to have made a mark on the tour of South Africa with three-figure innings. Sachin Tendulkar leads the way with five centuries from 15 matches played in the Rainbow Nation from 1992 to 2011; He is followed by Virat Kohli who has scored two runs. Praveen Amre, Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Jaffer and Cheteshwar Pujara are among those who have scored a century in South Africa.
Jaffer went to South Africa on the 2006–07 tour, playing three Tests and scoring 185 runs at 30.83, an average of 116 in his final innings at Newlands, Cape Town. After scores of 9 and 4 at The Wanderers, Johannesburg, 26 and 28 at Kingsmead, Durban, Jaffer scored 116 off 244 balls, with fifteen hits. On one tour he virtually became that of fast bowler Makhaya Ntini (he fell to South Africa four times out of six), Jaffer faced the likes of Dale Steyn, Ntini, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis and left-arm seamer Paul Harris. . century, the only bright spot in a Test match India lost by five wickets.
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“We could have won the Cape Town Test and the series, but we didn’t bat well in the second innings. Obviously this (116 in the first innings) was one of my better innings in Test cricket. I remember the pitch; It was very dry. It was a subcontinent type of pitch. It was not green. It started helping the spinners after the third day. I have very good memories of scoring a century there. It’s always special to score runs in South Africa against South Africa.”
Speaking to News18.com a few days ahead of the three-Test series between the two countries starting at Centurion on Boxing Day (December 26), Jaffer believes the pitch conditions in South Africa have changed in character Is.
“From what I have seen recently, the pitches in South Africa have changed. When we went to South Africa (15 years ago), we got a terrible pitch at The Wanderers. There was a shortage of water; That’s what we found out. But already before we played there the overall situation has changed. There used to be speed and bounce. As a batsman I would say that South Africa is a challenging place to play Test cricket. In fact, South Africa and England are the toughest places to score runs. This is due to the lateral movement and the speed and bounce the fast bowlers get there. But as I said, things have changed recently. Sometimes you get a lot of cracks on the pitch and there is little variable bounce (up and down). I’m really surprised that these things are happening there.”
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Jaffer, who has also faced South African fast bowlers in India and South Africa, believes they have the same mindset. “I think they always look to pitch the ball hard. That’s how they bowl all the time. You don’t get much to swing the ball other than Vernon Philander; of course in recent times. He Hit the deck just like Aussie fast bowlers. They have the pace and try to get the most out of the pitch. They are trained to bowl like this in South Africa. To bat when conditions are tough. Always challenging.”
After his long stint with Mumbai, Jaffer, who helped Vidarbha win the Ranji Trophy and then picked coaching first-class and IPL teams as a career option, says Kagiso Rabada is now one of the best fast bowlers in the business. are one of
“South Africa have a good fast bowling attack, no doubt about it (on Tuesday, CSA said fast bowler Enrique Nortje has been ruled out of the series due to repeated injury-related injuries). Rabada is one of the best. He is going to challenge the Indian batsmen. They have enough quality. His fast bowling will definitely challenge India. But his batting was not the same as it was before. However, it will be a challenging tour for India.”
Jaffer says it is important to compete well in the first Test of any series and South Africa is no different. He said, ‘India bowlers will keep their team in the game. Indian fast bowling is very experienced now. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have a lot of experience. India has launched an all-out attack. I have been saying that if India scores more than 400, there is a high chance that they will win the match. Our bowling attack is first-class. The challenge for the batsmen is to score on the board. That has been the problem. Virat was the only one to score runs in 2018. The other batsmen need to move on. India’s batting is now more balanced in the top six. Rishabh (Pant) batting for an hour and a half can change the game. The team has good players; He has to contribute around Virat.”
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