SA can look to England for India road map

Much has been made of South Africa's unbeaten overseas record in the past nine years, a major factor in the Proteas’ rise to the top of the ICC's Test rankings.

Playing in India was always going to be tough, but after wins in the Twenty20 and one-day international series, South Africa's confidence in the longer form of the game would have been boosted.

A loss in Mohali and a rained-off game in Bengaluru now means, however, they will need to make a sterling comeback in the remaining two Tests to keep that record intact.

Equally interesting is India's home record that has seen them lose just one series since November 2004.

That's 17 series, over 11 years, in which they have lost just one.

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That loss came against England in 2012. And if they haven't done so already, South Africa would do well to look closely at how that particular series panned out.

Much like the Proteas, England fell 1-0 behind in the series. Worse still, they had faced Pakistan earlier that year in the United Arab Emirates and gone down 3-0, struggling against spin and often showing signs of having undone all the progress they had made as a Test-playing nation.

England's turnaround against India was nothing short of spectacular and in more ways than one came against all odds.

Down 1-0, they played the second Test of that series at the Wankhede Stadium, on a pitch that not too many had any hesitation in calling a rank turner.

The toss was lost and India batted. Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar shared nine wickets between them - another telltale sign of the things to come - as India racked up 327 in their first dig.

With three frontline spinners in their ranks it seemed India had enough runs on the board, but the contrasting styles of Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen pulled England through to what turned out to be a match-winning total.

Both hit centuries; Cook blunted the spinners with his forward push, Pietersen turned on to them like a predator.

Swann and Panesar then bagged all 10 of the Indian second innings wickets and England were left to score just 57 to tie the series.

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A similar pattern was repeated in the third Test. In response to India's 316, England piled up a mammoth 523 with Cook again leading the way. His 190 was his third century in as many Tests and left them with a target of only 41 to go 2-1 up.

South Africa could well end up rewriting history with a formula of their own. But in that 2012 England victory they have a template they could use.

If England had Cook and Pietersen, South Africa possess the firepower of Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers.

Both Amla and du Plessis can play the role that Cook played to perfection, absorbing all the pressure.

And in de Villiers, South Africa not only have a batsman who can take matches away like Pietersen did at his peak, but one with the ability to do that more consistently than the Englishman.

One problem could be the bowling.

On paper, South Africa have spinners to exploit the condition but are the likes of Imran Tahir, Simon Harmer or even Dane Piedt in the same league as Swann and Panesar in 2012?

South Africa will hope so. Captain Amla believes his slow bowlers played a huge role in keeping them in the game till the final innings of the Mohali Test.

"The tracks have kind of helped spin bowling and to his cricket and to the other spinners in the Indian team, they’ve bowled very well," Amla said ahead of the third Test.

"In the second innings of the first Test, our spinners took eight of the 10 wickets, so our spinners have also done a very decent job whenever they’ve managed to bowl on tracks that turn. Imran has always been an attacking spinner and Simon has been growing in stature."

South Africa are also blessed in their two part-time spinning options, JP Duminy and Dean Elgar. Both can play a decent part in either containing batsmen or picking up wickets.

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Elgar scalped four in the first innings in Mohali while Duminy troubled the Indian batsmen during the ODIs.

In that England series, seam bowler James Anderson also played a part. On occasions he picked up a crucial early wicket, at other times he pushed the batsmen back with his ability to reverse the ball.

South Africa have that champion seamer in Dale Steyn. However, his failure to recover from a groin injury means Morne Morkel will need to take the mantle of spearhead with vigour.