India are all set to take on South Africa in the first T20I at Dharamsala. With Quinton de Kock being assigned the leadership role for the first time, he will have a challenging task at hand if the Proteas are to make an impact on this tour.
After a dismal World Cup performance, this will be South Africa's first series while India are coming off a successful tour of the Caribbean. De Kock with his less experienced side will start the series as underdogs.
At the Covelong surf festival, we caught up with Jonty Rhodes who spoke about the team's chances against India.
"There is a lack of unity in the team which is without seniors like Dale Steyn, Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers. They also have an interim coaching staff," said the 50-year-old legend.
"If you come to India, it's not just the players that need to perform. There has to be a strong back-up system because it is a long hard tour."
"It's not just the T20s but three Test matches in India. As a South African player, it is pretty demanding. I think we have only won the Test series once with Hansie Cronje in 1999 where Mark Boucher played really well. So you need those sort of fighters in the side and now the South African team has had a lot of changes," added the fielding genius.
Rhodes said it is difficult to replace the experience of Steyn, Amla and de Villiers and that will be the key in this tour. "It's hard to replace the senior players. We have great fast bowlers in the side. We have guys who have got the skills, but have they done it before? No!" he said.
"The experience is what South Africa is going to miss and they have got a brand new management team," he added.
Talking about the difference between India and South Africa, Jonty Rhodes praised the Indian management.
"The Indian set-up is really well established, top of the log. They are performing well on the field but if you look at their management structure, they have retained most of them again. They have very strong backroom staff and that allows the team to play to the best of their abilities."
"So I don't see a lot of positives from South African point of view, it's always tough here but it's going to be a hard tour," he concluded.
The two teams will play three T20Is starting on Sunday while the first Test begins on October 2nd at Visakhapatnam.
Teams:
India: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, Rahul Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Saini.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (c), Rassie van der Dussen (vc), Temba Bavuma, Junior Dala, Bjorn Fortuin, Beuran Hendricks, Reeza Hendricks, David Miller, Anrich Nortje, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, George Linde.