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The Big Differences Between South Africa and India
The Big Differences Between South Africa and India
South Africa and India will meet on 8th November in the first of four T20Is Matches at Durban.
The men's T20 World Cup final in Barbados in June marked the beginning of different paths for the teams involved. Since that match, South Africa has lost five out of their last six games in T20s, while India has won 10 out of their last 12 T20 matches and tied one.
Given the brave cricket South Africa played to reach their first senior men's World Cup final, why have they had a hard time since then?
Reeza Hendricks through a press conference said that he doesn’t know whom to give the credit. But this time they haven’t many players who were with them in that game. This time they have allowed the new players for the couple of the series. They weren’t able to get the desired results but they are learning, now they will be against India which would be another opportunity. They are hoping to get the results they want.
Hendricks spoke from Kingsmead, where South Africa and India are set to play on Friday in the first of four T20 matches. He made a valid point about the changes in the team, or maybe just part of a point.
Out of the team South Africa used in the final, only Hendricks, Aiden Markram, and Tristan Stubbs played in the recent series against the West Indies in Trinidad in August and against Ireland in Abu Dhabi in September. The only win for South Africa in those games was an eight-wicket victory over Ireland. They played all these matches without key players from the World Cup, including Quinton de Kock, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, and Tabraiz Shamsi.
Hendricks's point doesn't hold up as well when we look at India's performance in T20 matches after the World Cup. Out of the players who were in the final, only three took part in a series in Zimbabwe in July. Seven played in a series in Sri Lanka during the same month, but only three were in a home series against Bangladesh in October. Despite this, their only loss was to Zimbabwe by 13 runs.
Importantly, six of the Indian players from the final have played in T20 matches since then, which is twice as many as from South Africa. Seven players from both teams in the upcoming series played in the World Cup final.
Four South African Players who have helped the team to win against Bangladesh the previous are still going to play in the T20I squad.
Four of the South Africans who helped the Test team earn a 2-0 win in Bangladesh last month are in the T20I squad,But any hope that New Zealand will come to Wankhede and complete a 3-0 Test win is not realistic.
None of the Indian players from that Test series will be at Kingsmead on Friday, mainly because most of them are in the squad for the upcoming five-Test series in Australia starting on November 22.
How can India manage to have so many players spread out? You can see the answer by looking at South Africa's and India's domestic cricket competitions. In the 2023/24 Ranji Trophy, 623 players participated across 32 teams. In South Africa’s 2023/24 first-class tournament, just 268 players played for 15 teams. This means India has more than double the number of active first-class players compared to South Africa.
This is not surprising, considering that South Africa's population is only 4.42% of India's. In other words, there are about 22.65 times more people in India than in South Africa. Economically, India’s economy is 9.8 times bigger than South Africa’s.
The differences are clear and significant, showing us what real depth looks like in cricket and beyond.
India Squad: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Rinku Singh, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Tilak Varma, Ramandeep Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Axar Patel, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Dayal, Avesh Khan.
South Africa Squad: Aiden Markram (C), Ottneil Baartman, Donovan Ferreira, Heinrich Klaasen, Reeza Hendricks, Keshav Maharaj, Marco Jansen, Patrick Kruger, David Miller, Nqaba Peter, Ryan Rickelton, Andile Simelane, Gerald Coetzee, Mihlali Mpongwana, Lutho Sipamla (3rd and 4th T20Is) and Tristan Stubbs.
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