Virat Kohli and his men need to let the bat do the talking in South Africa. Virat Kohli and his men need to let the bat do the talking in South Africa.

After a clean sweep of Sri Lanka, the Indian team will be heading for its next assignment, which will be a challenging tour to South Africa. While history reveals that India will be in for a tough time in the rainbow nation Sri Lanka head coach Nic Pothas, on the hand, believes it will be a close contest between the top two sides in Test cricket.

Stating that the Indian team under Kohli has all the bases covered, Pothas said, “They (India) have got all their bases covered. If you provide them with a green wicket they have got bowling attack to knock over other batting line-ups. If it’s a flat wicket, they have got those bases covered. If a wicket spins they have got their bases covered.”

“If the Indian batting line-up can get runs against South Africa, then South Africa is going to find them (India) very tough,” added Pothas.

Analyzing the depth of the squad in the shorter formats of the game, Pothas said, “In one-day cricket they (India) have got a lot of depth, even in the 3rd T20I, they made a few changes (and) it did not hurt them. I like the fact that MS has closed games for a long time now. He is the best in the world in doing that.”

Pothas also maintained that the Indian wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal will pose a challenge to the South African batsmen. But he was also was quick to point out that the Proteas have a similar weapon in Imran Tahir.

“I think these (Indians) are quality wrist-spinners. But you have to remember Imran Tahir is a pretty good bowler as well. So it’s going to be a battle of wrist-spin in the ODIs,” he concluded by saying.

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