Dec. 15: Indian pace spearhead Zaheer Khan is unlikely to play in the first cricket Test of the three-match series against South Africa starting here on Thursday, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said on Wednesday.
Described as the “final frontier” by coach Gary Kirsten, world number two South Africa will challenge India’s number one status like no other side has in more than a year when the series kicks off at the Super Sport Park here. Graeme Smith’s men will look to exploit the Indian batsmen’s well-known susceptibility to the rising deliveries on bouncy tracks here and the hosts have the necessary arsenal to do that — the most potent of their weapons being world number one pacer Dale Steyn.
The Indians go into the series well aware that they have won just one out of the 12 Tests they have played in the rainbow nation. Even if they didn’t, the Proteas have not missed an opportunity to remind the visitors of the unflattering record ever since their arrival.
The last couple of years has seen the Indians winning seven of their last nine series, but most of them have come on the turning tracks of the sub-continent. The pace and bounce of South Africa would not be as easy to adapt considering the visitors go into the series without having played a single warm-up match.
Add to this, the Indians also have to deal with a couple of injury worries in pace spearhead Zaheer Khan and S Sreesanth.