The Wanderers wicket got a lot of flak from South African batsmen, especially Dean Elgar, who accused the pitch of being too dangerous. “I do think (it should have been called off earlier). On day three, the wicket didn’t play great. Batters got hit a hell of a lot of times. If there was a period to call it off, it was sooner,” he told reporters.  

“We had an incident of being hit in the head, where we could have had an incident of what happened in Australia. People want to watch Test cricket but we are also human beings. We are not just going to take blows and accept putting our bodies on the line. The situation could have been addressed sooner,” he added.

In our opinion, the criticism was ill-found considering the Indian batsmen too played on the same pitch, and they didn’t complain. Also, when a pitch is too favourable to the batsmen, nobody bats an eyelid. But suddenly, when bowlers run riot, the pitch is called unplayable. 

“What about them bowling short balls to our bowlers? When Ishant, Bhuvi, Shami were batting, everyone was bowling bouncers. I don’t think it is a dangerous wicket. Yes it is a challenging wicket. They prepared this wicket. We never told them to prepare a track like this. We want to play,” Ajinkya Rahane said when there was a possibility of the match being called off.

To be honest, the Test series was one of the most exciting ones we’ve seen in the recent past. It was hotly contested, and a lot of credit should go to the curators for preparing wickets were all 60 wickets fell and no team batted well enough to declare. 

“The bowlers were the biggest positive; we haven’t picked up 60 wickets in the past. We want to correct certain mistakes. This win feels great. As batsmen, if we can think about countering conditions better, we can do well away from home,” Virat Kohli said after winning the third Test.

Surely, if the bowlers can maintain this level of intensity, they can pose a serious threat and give India a chance to win away tours to England and South Africa.