When South Africa pulled off their highest T20 run chase against India (212/3) in the opener of the five-match T20 series, followed by another four-wicket victory in Cuttack, the Rishabh Pant-led hosts seemed down and out.
While Team India had missed the opportunity of registering a world-record of 13 T20I wins in a row, the visitors seemed set to repeat their heroics from the 2015 tour, when they won both T20s and ODIs.
However, Pant and co came back superbly by winning the next two games in Vizag and Rajkot. With the weather God having his say in the series decider in Bengaluru, South Africa kept their record of not losing a limited-overs series in India since 2010 intact.
With Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah missing due to workload management, and following KL Rahul's injury, the 2-2 scoreline ended up being a moral victory for Team India.
Let's discuss some of the talking points from the closely-contested series here.
Has Ishan Kishan reignited the 'need for a left hander' at the top?
After ending his IPL 2022 campaign on a solid note (418 runs in 14 games), the Jharkhand lad carried on the good run against South Africa by scoring 206 runs during the whole series at an average and strike rate of 41.20 and 150.36 respectively. He took a particular liking to Keshav Maharaj and the match-up between the two produced 67 runs off 25 balls.
Dismissed only once in the powerplay (in the washed-out series decider in Bengaluru), he hit 21 fours and 11 sixes during the series -- the most among batters from the two camps. The youngster also plundered the Proteas spin attack of Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi in the middle overs.
Despite Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul being Team India's first-choice openers, Ishan's solid performance gives them the potential option of slotting a southpaw in a top-order full of right-handers to negate the threats from left-arm pacers and leg spinners.
Time running out for Shreyas Iyer
Against Sri Lanka earlier this year, Iyer scored 204 runs in three T20Is at a strike rate near 175 and suddenly there was talk about him perfectly fitting in Team India's batting blueprint post the Kohli, Rohit era.
In IPL 2022, he scored 401 runs in 14 games. However, out of his five dismissals against pacers, three of them were effected by short-pitched deliveries, clear proof that teams have been cashing in on his weakness against fast bowling.
With Suryakumar Yadav's injury and Virat Kohli being rested, Iyer was pushed in at number three against the visiting South Africans. He only managed 94 runs in five matches.
Despite coach Rahul Dravid backing the under-fire Mumbai batter and saying that he remains an important cog in Team India's T20 setup, time is running out fast for the youngster, with Yadav all set to don the India jersey again during the Ireland tour.
Iyer needs to work on his issues against rising deliveries, as the T20 World Cup will be played on Australian surfaces, which tend to favour pacers with extra bounce and huge boundaries. During the 2020 tour Down Under, Aussies got the better of Iyer with short-pitched bowling and if he gets selected in the final 15 for the showpiece tournament, the same ploy will likely be used against him.
Reinvention in batting is need of the hour for Pant
Shifting attention from Shreyas, let's talk about the Rishabh Pant dilemma.
While Team India made a stunning comeback in the five-match series under the youngster's captaincy after losing the first two games, it's his batting that grabbed the headline for all the wrong reasons.
He managed only 58 runs in five games at an average of 14.50 and a strike rate barely crossing the 100 mark fuelling talk of a four-way contest between him, Sanju Samson, KL Rahul and Dinesh Karthik for the wicketkeeper-batter's role.
It doesn't augur well for the Delhi lad, the only left-hander in Team India's first-choice batting line-up, who often acts as the floater to disrupt the opposition's gameplan. In IPL 2022 also he didn't fare well, managing just 340 runs in 14 matches at an average of 30.91. His strike rate, however, saw a remarkable improvement as it was near 152 throughout the tournament. In the last two seasons, it went below 130.
So what's bothering Pant?
The answer lies in his erratic shot selection.
His strong zone is the offside. If he gets the width around that region, his attacking nature comes to the fore and then muscle power (more than timing) takes over.
Throughout the series, South Africa kept bowling slow, length deliveries way outside the off stump, forcing Pant to reach out and in that process, he lost his balance and power. This resulted in ugly, mistimed top edges, keeping the fielders at sweeper, mid-off and deep point in business.
Although coach Dravid defended his under-fire captain in front of the media, Pant needs to find a quick way out of this mess, keeping in mind that teams will be looking to implement the same bowling blueprint against him during the World T20.
DK, the death over enforcer, has to be on that flight to Australia
After two back-to-back below-par IPL seasons in 2020 and 2021 and losing KKR's captaincy midway through the tournament, the Tamil Nadu veteran almost got written off.
However, RCB picked DK up for Rs 5.50 crores in this year's auctions. And it proved to be a masterstroke, as the 37-year-old's heroics (330 runs in 16 innings at an average of 55.00 and a strike rate of 183.33) down the order helped the franchise to reach the playoffs despite the poor form of Virat Kohli, skipper Faf Du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell. Karthik even pushed down his former KKR teammate Andre Russell to second place in the list of IPL 2022's 'Super Strikers'.
This performance forced the pundits to eat their own words, with some of them even pitching for the batter to be a part of Team India's T20 set-up. The selection call eventually came against the Proteas and Karthik justified it with knocks of 30 (in 21 balls) and 55 (in 27 balls).
The second knock at Rajkot proved to be the decisive one as India from 81-4 in 12.5 overs, reached 169-6 in 20 overs, a scoreline which proved to be too much for the visitors as they succumbed by 82 runs. This knock was also DK's first T20I fifty, since his debut in the shortest format in 2006 against the same opponent (His unbeaten 31 in that game not only earned him the Man of the match award, but also helped Men-in-Blue to start their T20 journey with a win).
Talking about Karthik's impact, Dravid said, "He and Hardik batted beautifully. Both of them are our enforcers in the end, guys who can capitalise on the last five-six overs as well as anyone in the world. It's very nice to see Karthik come and do what he's picked to do."
Dravid's statement clarifies DK's role leading upto World T20 2022.
In the IPL this year, out of the veteran's 330 runs in 16 games, 251 came in the death overs at a strike rate 207.4. While the team management looks upon Karthik and Pandya as enforcers in the death overs, fierce competition is expected between Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel for the possible sixth bowler's slot as Hardik, Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar, Harshal and Yuzvendra Chahal are expected to form the bowling core in Australia. In case the playing 11 requires an additional bowler, Karthik's efficiency behind the stumps can give him the edge over Pant.
After injury crisis, Bhuvi gets his mojo back
One of the major reasons behind Team India's first-round exit in the T20 World Cup last year was a jaded Bhuvneshwar Kumar struggling for swing and accuracy.
In the next nine T20Is against New Zealand, West Indies and Sri Lanka, he took eight wickets. In the recently-concluded IPL, his stats read 12 wickets in 14 games at an average and economy of 31.91 and 7.34 respectively.
Leading an inexperienced new-ball attack against South Africa, Bhuvi stepped up when it really mattered.
In five matches, he got six wickets and finished at second position in the list of most successful bowlers during the series.
Four of these six scalps came at the powerplays, with the best being 3/10 in Visakhapatnam. His economy rate was also below four.
With Harshal Patel (seven wickets) topping the bowling chart after these five encounters, Bumrah coming into the mix will boost Team India's chances further leading up to the World T20.