Hyderabad: Former India batter Aakash Chopra has backed Virat Kohli to succeed in the series against South Africa saying he is the only player whose average in South Africa is close to his career average. India are playing a multi-format series against South Africa in their own backyard and the Test series will commence on December 26, Tuesday. Indian side will aim to defeat the opposition and script their first series victory on the South African soil.
Elaborating India's failure to secure a series win in their earlier tours, Aakash Chopra has remarked that Virat Kohli has been the only consistent batter in South Africa while other batters have been average with the willow.
"You might have a question in your mind as to why we are unable to win here. According to me, the main reason is that these are the most difficult conditions for batting across the globe, where the ball seams, swings and bounces," Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
"When you see this team, Virat Kohli is the only player whose average in South Africa is close to his career average. Everyone else's averages plummet when they go to South Africa. In fact, the entire South African team also has extremely ordinary averages in Test cricket. So Virat Kohli is shining bright."
Kohli has scored 719 runs in seven Test matches with an average of 51.35 in South Africa. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer are yet to play a red-ball game in South Africa, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul average 15.38 and 25.60 respectively.
Chopra also added that 350-400 will be par score for the Indian side and they can create history with such performance.
"So they are going to challenge you. If India can score 350-400 runs, they can get close to creating history. If we look at South Africa, the batting is extremely inexperienced. They are not a team that will score 500 against your bowling attack," he concluded.
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