South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj believes the pitches in the upcoming Test series against India, starting in Kolkata on Friday, won’t mirror the spin-friendly conditions his side encountered in Pakistan last month.
In the drawn two-match series, Pakistan and South African spinners combined to take 62 wickets, while pacers across both sides chipped in with just nine.
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“I don’t think it will be as spin-friendly as we experienced in Pakistan. I think it will be good wickets that will deteriorate as the game goes on. So, probably, more of your traditional Test wickets from what we see,” said Maharaj during an online media interaction on Tuesday.
South Africa’s last two Test sojourns to India (in 2015 and 2019) saw spinners dictate terms, with the likes of R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja running riot on pliant surfaces.
But, Maharaj, on the evidence of India’s recent series win against West Indies, suggested that the narrative would be different this time out.
“I think if you watched a bit of the West Indies series, it was good wickets that went almost to day four and five. So, I do believe that the sort of narrative is changing in terms of getting wickets. They [India] are a wonderful team and they’ve come a long way, especially with the transition that they have had. I would think that they want to go with good cricket wickets, just judging from the West Indies series,” added the left-arm spinner.
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Despite being one of the most consistent red-ball teams going around, the Proteas haven’t won a Test in India in over 15 years, drawing a blank in both of its last two series, in 2015 and 2019.
Maharaj acknowledged the magnitude of the challenge ahead of South Africa, while also observing this as an opportunity to assess themselves.
“There’s a real hunger and desire within the camp to beat India in India. It’s probably one of the toughest tours, if not the toughest in the Proteas calendar, for the various generations that have come [here]. We feel like it’s one of our biggest tests. And it will be a wonderful opportunity to grade ourselves, to see how far we’ve come slowly. We have started to conquer other parts of the subcontinent. And I feel like this is one assignment that we really, really want to take.
“We are carrying a bit of momentum from Pakistan in that second Test, [where] we showed that regardless of the toss, we’re still going to fight and try to force the result in our way. I think there’s a real precision about how we’ve gone about our business throughout this cycle so far, and in the previous cycle,” said Maharaj.
Published on Nov 11, 2025