The corridors of Indian cricket have started hearing murmurs about the Indian Premier League (IPL) allowing top foreign cricketers get acclimatize to the subcontinent conditions and then use that in a winning cause when touring India on national duty.
Something similar is happening in India's home-season opener against South Africa, who have now won both the T20I (2-0) and ODI (3-2) series going into the four-Test series before the tour ends.
AB de Villiers, who regularly features for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, led the team's limited-overs success with three centuries in the five-match ODI rubber. Similarly Sunrisers Hyederabad pacer Dale Steyn topped the wicket-taking charts in the ODIs.
Evidently, two of South Africa and world's top-rated cricketers used their IPL experience to good effect and played key roles in their team's success so far.
Considering that, former South Africa pacer Fanie De Villiers feels India have been the "architect of their own downfall."
"Our players are used to Indian conditions and India have been their own architect of this result by having overseas players getting used to the Indian conditions [through IPL]," Fanie told The Times of India.
"In the past, we haven't lost against India, we have lost against the conditions. India aren't good overseas, they are only good in their own conditions. They are basically the architect of their own downfall because you have created the scenario [IPL] where our players can play in your conditions."
Before the current tour, South Africa had never won an ODI series in India. And Fanie feels, the Test series is going to be tougher for India than before.
"Even Test cricket-wise, South Africa are going to be more competitive than in the past. For the last 15 years, we have played in so many series but couldn't beat India because we struggled against the conditions. There's this big difference between losing against India and losing against conditions. This will be an even tougher series for India," he reckoned.
The former pacer feels India won't take the risk of preparing Test pitches that would assist pacers as South Africa have the resources to use such conditions to good effect. He felt it could be SA pacers vs Indian spinners.
"It all depends on the conditions, on the wickets South Africa play on and how much grass you leave on the wicket. All the South African bowlers - Steyn, Morkel and Rabada - are capable of bowling quickly and they know what to do when there's grass on the wicket, I don't think India will do them this favour.
"It would be interesting to see how India will counter the pace bowling and how South Africa will respond to the Indian spinners," Fanie said.
He disagreed with Dale Steyn's comment from the past that express pace doesn't require any assistance.
"He is talking nonsense. I don't agree with that. You need a pitch that has bounce and assist seam, otherwise your 150 km/hr will mean nothing. Your [Indian] batsmen are too good for that. It has never been the case. No fast bowler in the world will put his hand on the bible saying I don't need a pitch with grass and bounce. I think you need a pitch that assists bounce; that deviates and develops cracks to also help reverse swing," Fanie concluded.
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