The South African captain admitted that playing India in India was not an easy proposition but he was also confident of his own team putting up a good show, even as South Africa look to regain ground, on more than front and yes, it includes the top spot in the ICC Test rankings.
Graeme Smith was candid, frank and to the point on what South Africa hope to achieve on this tour, “The No.1 ranking is not really an issue for us. India have been playing good cricket, that is why they are ranked No.1. We will concentrate on our own game. We know that if we perform to our level and our standards we can put India under a lot of pressure. Any time you come to India it is always very tough, so we probably start as underdogs.”
Smith knows a good show will redeem South Africa of its recent turmoil with the exit of coach Mickey Arthur and especially a more settled dressing room with Corrie van Zyl and Kepler Wessels now taking reins of the off the field preparations.
Sounding a confident note ahead of the two Test series against India and the warm up against the Board President’s XI, Smith sounded off, “We have been doing well in the past two years and we hope to bring that confidence in this series. India are currently the No1 Test team but we hope to take away that status from them in this series.”
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