Ten Doeschate anticipates mouth-watering tie against Proteas
The India assistant coach feels every series is vital leading to the World Test Championship final.
After their white-ball tour of Australia, India now turn their attention to the all-format series against South Africa, starting with the Test match on November 14 at Eden Gardens.
India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate is looking forward to the upcoming ICC World Test Championship series against South Africa with the focus also on next year’s T20 World Cup at home.
South Africa haven’t won a Test in India since 2010 but ten Doeschate is wary of the defending World Test Champions.
“They (South Africa) deserve a lot of credit for how they’ve gone about their work in the last 9-10 months,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“The position they found themselves in the WTC, they showed they are a quality team to beat Australia in the final.
"Also the mention of how potent they are as a spin attack makes it more mouth-watering, as we will be playing at home. But also the WTC is just so important, there is no series you can take lightly and let slip by.”
“Obviously in the context of the (T20) World Cup coming up and managing the three formats, this is as important as anything else. And obviously a very big step to us getting to the World Test Championship final next year. Everyone is looking forward to it. It should be a great contest.”
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While the hosts are coming off a series win against the West Indies at home, South Africa levelled the two-match series against Pakistan, after a defeat in the first Test.
Ten Doeschate believes the potent Proteas spin attack can pose a challenge for Shubman Gill's side.
"You normally worry about the pace attack first, but I am pretty sure they will go with two seamers and three, if not four spinners. That’s the challenge when you’re playing in the subcontinent - and it’s something as a team we need to get better at," he added.
“Hopefully, we’ve learnt from the New Zealand series. We’ve put plans in place for how to play spin better.
"It’s going to be so important over these two games, particularly after how well South Africa bowled in Pakistan."
Shubman Gill is set to lead India in the Test series after featuring in the white-ball tour of Australia. One of the few players to represent India across all three formats, there has been a lot of talk about Gill’s workload. Ten Doeschate admitted it wasn’t easy but said he’s confident in the players’ ability to adapt quickly between formats.
“It's super challenging. You see less and less guys playing all three formats. Mentally when you take a challenge like that you need a roadmap on how to go about things. Shubi (Shubman Gill) as an example has been very good,” he said.
“The boys are putting in so much work to be physically stronger and aerobically more fit to spend longer time on the field.
"I feel all of them are in really good shape given the way we are in the calendar so far this year.”
India have won four of their seven Tests this year with all-rounders playing a vital role. With spin expected to be a major factor in the upcoming series, ten Doeschate highlighted the importance of balancing all-rounders and specialist spinners while maintaining depth in the squad.
“We’re quite lucky in the sense we get to the point where some of these all-rounders could play as either a batter or a bowler.
"You don’t want to sacrifice someone who is suited to one of the facets of the game just to bring an all-rounder in for that sake.”
“We can tweak our combinations to play all-rounders who are the most suited for that game.”
Series schedule:
First Test - November 14-18, Kolkata
Second Test - November 22-26, Guwahati
