Rubbing salt into the wounds after inflicting two humiliating defeats, South Africa coach Russell Domingo declared that it will be easier for the home team to plan against India as visitors lack the “claming influence” of Sachin Tendulkar in their dressing room.
Tendulkar, who retired from international cricket last month was very successful during India’s last tour of South Africa in 2010-11 where he scored two centuries in three Test matches.
“He was a big player for them and was a calming influence in the dressing room. It will be great not having to get Sachin Tendulkar out,” Proteas coach Domingo was quoted as saying by the ‘City Press’.
Adding insult to injury, Domingo said that they would like to exploit the age-old Indian weakness of not being able to play fast bowling.
“It’s a big advantage. We spoke at the beginning of the one-day series that we wanted to put doubt in their minds in terms of the way that they play pace. They have always had issues playing pace in South Africa and that is what history shows.” Domingo said.
“It (pace) is a South African strength. It is the way that we were brought up playing cricket. Sub-continent sides will always turn to spin as an attacking option and South Africans will turn to pace because that is in our DNA,” the coach added.
Domingo made it clear that they would like to go with a four-pronged pace attack.
“Having a four-pronged pace attack is important for us against a country like India in our conditions.”
The South African coach said that he would like to stick to the seven-batsman policy.
“The side has been successful with the seven-batsman strategy and I’d probably like to continue that. It is still early in my test tenure to want to make too many wholesale changes to what has worked well over the last period of time,” Domingo said.