Lalchand Rajput predicts team India will win Test series against South Africa

Former Indian cricketer and the World Cup winning team manager, Lalchand Rajput, has made some bold predictions ahead of India’s upcoming tour of South Africa. Rajput feels that the Indian team will surprisingly dominate the Proteas on the tour. As per the quotes in PTI, Lalchand predicted a 2-1 win for India in the Test series.

Explaining his point, he remarked that the Indian team is very aggressive. And with Virat Kohli as their leader, they look firmly balanced to challenge the opposition. The Indian top order has struck a purple patch too ahead of the big tour.

“The way the Indian team is playing, they are playing tough cricket. With Virat Kohli being the leader, the aggression which he shows, seems to be imbibed in other players too and they want to win at any cost. They want to crush the opponents. This is the team that would do wonders and I am hopeful that they will do really well in South Africa,” quoted Lalchand Rajput.

On India’s bowling

Speaking further on the same note, the former Indian team manager conceded that the bowlers win matches. He rightly mentioned that in order to win Test games, the bowlers should be able to scalp 20 wickets. And he feels that the current crop of Indian bowlers is very much capable of doing so.

“To win a Test match, we need to take 20 wickets. We have the bowlers who can take 20 (South African) wickets. Bhuvneswar Kumar is in peak form, Umesh Yadav has done exceptionally well, (Mohammad) Shami, after injury, is bowling superbly. If they get a little bit of help from the wickets then these bowlers are dangerous,” Rajput quoted.

On Ajinkya Rahane’s current form

While the bowling unit looks in good form with all bowlers contributing in the recent past, India’s concerns lie with their middle-order in the batting department. Ajinkya Rahane, who is one of the most successful players for the team in overseas conditions, has had a horrid time in the recently concluded Sri Lanka series.

He could only aggregate 17 runs in 5 innings. Commenting on him, Lalchand Rajput feels that Rahane is just one good knock away from striking good form. All he needs to do is to spend some time at the crease to feel at ease yet again.

“For any batsman, who has done so well on foreign soil, it is just one step away from a big score. He had a very bad series in last couple of months. But he is such a good player, if he spends time in the middle, I want him to spend more time in the middle, forget about scoring runs,” feels Lalchand Rajput.

“He has to be there (at the crease) for an hour, once he is there for an hour, automatically his batting form will come. He just has to spend time and the first game will be crucial for him,” he added further.