Kepler Wessels heaps praise on wrist-spinning duo of Chahal and Kuldeep

The former Proteas skipper Kepler Wessels lauds spinning duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav post-South Africa’s defeat in the six-match One-day International series.

The Proteas batsmen struggled against the wrist spinners during the 50-over leg of the Rainbow Nation.

Kuldeep and Chahal eked out 33 scalps out of over 53 South African wickets in the ODI series. Wessels echoed the words of veteran all-rounder Jacques Kallis.

Both Wessels and Kallis postulated that inexposure to quality spinners led to the downfall of the Protean batsmen.

Wessels also reiterated about the statement made by Kallis owing to the lack of depth in the Proteas batting line up.

The 60-year-old believes the current South African set up is heavily dependent on the like of Hashim Amla, AB De Villiers and Faf Du Plessis.

“I agree with him and he is absolutely right,” replied Wessels, agreeing with Kallis’ views.

“They struggled because most of the (current) South African batsmen hadn’t played against wrist spinners very much. They were taken by surprise by the quality of spin and they hadn’t seen anything like that before,” stated Wessels who is also part of the post-match analysis show on Sony Ten 1.

 

“I wasn’t surprised by India’s performance as I knew going into the One Day series (after Tests) they are going to be competitive and they are a good One Day team. South Africa had a depleted side and they lost players through injuries (in the series) and their play against spinners was not good enough. India was the better side,” claimed Wessels further.

On Indians scheduling warm-up games in future tours:

India won the ODI series by 5-1 and salvaged some pride out of the Test series by managing 2-1 scoreline.

There exists a school of thought within the Indian cricketing fraternity. It asserts the Test series result might have been different if Team India had opted for warm-up fixtures.

Wessels believes that India should have more warm games during their tours to England and Australia.

“They should definitely have some warm-up matches in England because it takes some time to get used to the English conditions. In Australia also there will be an additional bounce, so one or a few warm-up matches will be a good idea,” elaborated the batsman who played for both South Africa and Australia.

“They should have had a warm-up match in South Africa. I am not saying that would have impacted on them winning the series, but it would have helped them to get used to the conditions,” concluded Kepler Wessels according to PTI.

Here’s the newsfeed:

Trans-Tasman T20I: Kane Williamson refuses to blame bowlers for the Auckland loss

SA vs IND, 2018: 1st T20I, Johannesburg – India’s Predicted XI