India return to sporting South Africa, still chasing history

India's previous Test series in South Africa is unfortunately remembered most instantly for their meltdown on the field and the outpouring of pent-up frustration into the stump mics. The refrain was that the broadcasters were allegedly doing all within their powers to help the home side. "A whole nation against 11 guys," KL Rahul shouted in the vicinity of the stump mics.

It was an uncharacteristic outburst from a team built on cold, calculated professionalism because you couldn't hope to achieve anything through such a meltdown. Perhaps it was the frustration of coming close to a first series win in South Africa yet again and watching it slip away. Perhaps India felt the broadcasters were scrutinising their maintaining of the ball a lot more than they did the hosts'. It is not an entirely fantastical thought: broadcasters can provide the only evidence for ball-tampering, and no home player has ever been caught so far.

Whatever India might have felt at the time about the host broadcasters, that host country has not been hostile to them. Of their last five Test tours to South Africa, spanning 16 years, India have won a Test on four of them and come pretty close to winning on other tour too, taken the series to a decider on four occasions, and been in the series lead twice.

Despite having won the last two Test series in Australia, India can't claim to have been as consistently competitive in any of the countries that are traditionally difficult for Asian teams to tour - Australia, England, New Zealand being the others - as they have been in South Africa. In fact even during the dark cricketing decade of the 1990s - one away Test win in 10 years - India were once thwarted from closing out a Test in Johannesburg only by an electric storm.

South Africa doesn't limit these pleasantries just to India. Apart from Australia and England, who generally enjoy playing there, Sri Lanka have also recently won a series 2-0 in South Africa. Since the start of 2006, when India started touring South Africa more regularly, England and South Africa have a similar win-loss ratio at home of 2.4 and 2.1 and are in the middle of that table.

It's not because South Africa are not a good team anymore but because the country offers some of the most sporting conditions among dominant home sides. The conditions in South Africa don't take the opposition bowlers out of the game. Not every team can hope to have the kind of bowling needed to win in India and Australia, but visiting bowlers are often competitive in South Africa and England. Even England, of late, has been taking spinners out of the game. In South Africa, though, the visiting spinners can find something once you move out of the Highveld.

Basically the country assists the widest variety of bowlers. Australia can eliminate swing bowlers, but South Africa can't. New Zealand can necessitate swing bowlers, but South Africa can't. From nibbly seam movement at 135kph to genuine swing to raw pace, everything tends to work. While lateral movement doesn't entirely die, the major source of jeopardy in the second innings is usually uneven bounce.

A seam bowler such as Vernon Philander bowling in the mid-130s can be a terror but, equally, swing at high pace like Dale Steyn's works. Hit-the-deck bowlers come into their own as matches progress because of the cracks opening. There can be enough in Durban and Gqeberha - sometimes even in Cape Town - for spinners to win you Tests, as Rangana Herath and Harbhajan Singh have shown.

All this makes batting difficult, but runs come quickly when the conditions settle down. More importantly, the conditions reduce the home advantage by giving the visitors various ways to attack you. To the other extreme of competitiveness, sometimes incomplete attacks can also succeed because you don't have to keep coming back for good spell after good spell.

In many ways, playing in South Africa is like playing in England, which is why these two teams travel to the other country well. Except that it rains much less during the South African summer. Add to the sporting conditions the picturesque grounds with grass banks and fun activities in the stadium from the plunge pool at Centurion to the steel band at St George's Park, and South Africa is not far from being the best place to watch Test cricket.

India, in particular, have managed to find bowlers who regularly keep them competitive in South Africa. Since November 2006 - and this includes series against some great South African sides - India's bowlers have averaged only five runs more than South Africa's in South Africa. The corresponding number is 10 in England and seven in Australia.

That's perhaps why it hurts India the most that South Africa is the only place where they haven't won a series. That's possibly why they collectively let themselves go in January last year. How much Test cricket is decided by bowlers, though, was apparent in how the series last year came down to the taller South Africa bowlers deriving more out of the pitch in the second innings of the last Test. This was when South Africa were believed to be ripe for the picking, with the biggest name in their batting being Dean Elgar.

How many of these Indian players would get such a chance again, they must have wondered. Luckily for them, the Future Tours Programme released later in the year had them touring South Africa the following year itself. Quite a few of that team now have another shot at being the first ones to win a series in South Africa. If anything, their batting looks reinforced, which they will hope offsets the absence of Rishabh Pant. India are fortunate that Jasprit Bumrah is back but unfortunate that Mohammed Shami won't be available. South Africa have their own fitness concerns with their bowlers.

Despite being reduced to just two Tests, this series once again promises to be one where India will be more than hopeful, as they have been on their last two tours to this country. And like the previous tours, you won't bet against South Africa finding bowlers to hold the fort. It could come down to fine margins again.