Pandya can no longer be seen as a bit of this and a bit of that. ©AFP

With the amount of discussion that accompanies everything in Indian cricket (and, hand up, I am part of that!), it is easy to get alarmed at the result of the first Test in Cape Town. And while there were some positive signs around this team, history tells us that it should have been predictable. On India's last ten tours of the SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia..don't try and read too much into the acronym!), India have lost the first Test seven times and have only won it once.

There were a couple of other factors against India. After a long time, South Africa were at full strength and given their inherently combative approach to sport, that was always going to make them formidable opponents. I actually thought this was India's best chance to challenge South Africa but that evaporated on day one. Maybe it was because India had played a lot of soft opposition in the build-up. But that was how things were scheduled and try as you can to make the most of a non-competitive series, it is very difficult to suddenly raise your game in more difficult conditions.

Over the last few years, the warm-up game has fallen prey to scheduling that is driven by commercial requirements. Teams need to play at least two competitive warm-up games to get their instincts fine-tuned but hardly anyone in world cricket has that luxury now and that could well be one of the major reasons why nobody wins away series anymore. India had the option of playing one two-day game and they were right in cancelling that because these 14-a-side affairs can be a colossal waste of time. The opposition is often poor and nobody tries too hard anyway. But before the tours to England and Australia later in the year, India must insist on at least two serious games.

It came as no surprise that familiar enemies, seam and bounce, popped up to harass India again. At least two top-order batsmen, Murali Vijay and Virat Kohli himself, seemed to be trying so hard to negate the problem outside the off-stump that they ended up leaving themselves even more vulnerable. The seam movement is what distinguishes South African conditions from those in Australia where India have a very decent batting record. But the treacherous batting conditions in Cape Town, if anything, highlighted traditional weaknesses even more.

But even amidst defeat, India's bowlers showed that in helpful conditions they can challenge home batsmen and I was particularly excited to see Jasprit Bumrah ease himself into Test cricket. You could see that he was a bit lost in the first innings but in the second, his control over line was wonderful to see. He is a quick learner and he showed that in Cape Town. The quiet and unassuming Bhuvneshwar Kumar is rapidly becoming India's No.1 bowler but Kohli needs to find a way of lighting a fire under Mohammed Shami. When Shami is running in hard and allowing the ball that extra zip, he looks as good as anyone in the game. But then, he is just as likely to saunter in and release the ball, the bowling equivalent of a casual evening walk. If India is to play four bowlers, one of them cannot be temperamental.

As often happens with touring teams in unfamiliar conditions, India carry more questions to Centurion than they had when they landed in Cape Town. They will feel the need to play an extra batsman on the two surfaces that await them but that means you can only play four bowlers. So either India need to define (Hardik) Pandya, one of the few big gains from Cape Town, as a number six batsman or as one of four bowlers. Well as he bowled in the first Test, you can see that his future is going to lie as a batsman who chips in with ten or twelve good overs in the day. Pandya can no longer be seen as a bit of this and a bit of that. You can do that against Sri Lanka where India had a complete team with ten players and could carry Pandya along. And so he needs to move up formally to number six and all of us need to come to terms with that.

So other than tinkering with the batsmen, India will not be too different in composition when they take the field at Centurion on Saturday. There isn't a lot of time to make friends with seam and bounce.

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