South Africa will have to play out of their skins to beat India: Sourav Ganguly

With an emphatic win against South Africa in the first of the three-match Test series, India have well and truly ended the year in style. While KL Rahul scored an amazing century in the first innings to ensure the visitors get to a good score, Mohammed Shami picked eight wickets in the Test, and made sure that the hosts don’t score too many runs with the bat.

This was India’s eighth Test win in 2021, and their fourth outside home. It has to be noted that while the Kohli-led side lead the away series against England and South Africa by 2-1 and 1-0 respectively, they also managed to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2021-22 earlier this year. Besides, they made it to the final of the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) as well. Thus, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly isn’t surprised with the team’s performance in the Centurion Test.

India’s former captain took to Twitter to congratulate India on their victory against the Proteas. He also mentioned the fact that it will be hard to beat them in this series. However, the 49-year-old did go on to say that the hosts would have to go out of their skins to beat the visitors.

“Great victory for Team India ..not surprised by the result at all…will be a hard team to beat this series..South africa will have to play out of their skins to do that ..enjoy the new year @bcci,” read Sourav Ganguly’s tweet.

Great victory for Team India ..not surprised by the result at all…will be a hard team to beat this series..South africa will have to play out of their skins to do that ..enjoy the new year @bcci

— Sourav Ganguly (@SGanguly99) December 30, 2021

Ganguly recently tested positive for COVID-19

The Indian legend was recently tested positive for COVID-19, and was admitted to a hospital in Kolkata. However, his family and doctors did say that he is stable, and there wasn’t anything to worry about. Nevertheless, Ganguly has been trending for various other reasons for the past few weeks.

The entire captaincy controversy involving the BCCI and Virat Kohli managed to take the world by storm. Several fans had mixed views and reactions about the same. As a matter of fact, there was an apparent communication gap between the BCCI president and the 33-year-old. However, irrespective of that, India’s Test captain has ensured that his side keeps winning Tests, and have been sensational in 2021, to say the least.