Can India beat SA without Dravid and Yuvraj?

India's middle order has been substantially weakened due to teh absence of Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh, who have been ruled out of the upcoming Test series against South Africa owing to injuries. Dravid is still recovering from the hairline fracture that he suffered in the second Test against Bangladesh while Yuvraj is nursing an injury to his finger inflicted upon him in the same game.

India has played against weaker sides such as Sri Lanka (which was severely depleted) and Bangladesh during the past two months, and no one can forget the embarrassment during the Australia series, even though the visitors were without most of the key players. Rahul Dravid had not played during the series and the upcoming games against South Africa, the number two team in the world would be the real test for India. SA is packed with excellent pace bowlers the likes of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, and it would be a tough task for the rookie replacement batsmen to notch up scores in excess of 500.

However Gautam Gambhir is not too worried about Dravid's absence. According to Gambhir, India is still a strong team, and would be ready to beat South Africa. "Rahul Dravid has been the wall of Indian middle order batting and his absence against a quality team such as South Africa will be a big blow," said Gambhir, "But we have begun 2010 well (by winning against Bangladesh). The players would want to carry the momentum against South Africa. Moreover, injuries are part and parcel of sports, and it gives other players an opportunity to prove their mettle against a tough opposition," he said.

"They have a strong bowling pair in Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. We need to start off well up front to keep them at bay. Though we don't have S Sreesanth, Zaks (Zaheer Khan) has been bowling extremely well recently. His performance in Bangladesh speaks volumes of the form he is in. Ishant Sharma has also been bowling well in Tests and we do have a good balance in bowling," said Gambhir, "We have to play well as a team. It would be crucial for us to get a good start, either batting or bowling first. If we are batting first we need to put up a good total to back up the bowlers. If we are bowling first, we need to take crucial early wickets," said the top-ranked ICC Test batsman. They (South Africa) did well when they were here the last time, but didn't win the series. They will surely carry some confidence from that tour. But we have started off the year well by winning the series against Bangladesh. We have a lot of cricket ahead and it is good to start the year on such a positive note," he said.

Newbies Abhimanyu Mithun, Wriddhiman Saha and S Badrinath have been drafted into the team for the series against South Africa. 20-year-old Mithun is a medium pacer from Karnataka while Wriddhiman Saha is a specialist wicketkeeper from Bengal. Mithun was given the go ahead after his spectacular performance in the recently concluded Ranji Trophy, he was the highest wicket taker in the season. Tamil Nadu middle-order batsman S Badrinath is also back in the squad after being overlooked for the Bangladesh tour. Another rookie Murali Vijay has also been retained for the South Africa series and VVS Laxman also has been confirmed for the first Test. The fate of Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma remains unknown. Kohli recently had a good series against Sri Lanka where he scores two hundreds.