First-timer Domingo's time to succeed

A maiden voyage is made up of equal measure of expectation and excitement, even if you are not the captain or any of the crew but just the coach. South Africa's coach Russell Domingo has been involved in cricket for more than two decades but this will be his first visit to cricket's nerve centre.

"I have never been to India and I can't wait. I am really looking forward to it, it's a new adventure for me. Talking about team building, I might lead an expedition up the Himalayas after the first T20," Domingo said at the team's departure.

Domingo has the right idea with South Africa's first T20 being in Dharamsala, but he may not have enough time to take a hike. Two days later, South Africa play a second match in Cuttack and a third in Kolkata soon after. In total, they will visit 12 cities in 72 days - their longest-ever trip to India - and the focus is on making themselves part of the furniture.

"It's going to be different. It's an extra month from what we are used to in terms of a tour, normal tours last 42 or 43 days. This one is 72 days," Domingo said. " The other side to that is to play some good cricket. We haven't played a sustained period of cricket for a long period of time now."

Since the end of the World Cup, South Africa have had the least cricket compared to any team, with just two short series. Their trip to Bangladesh went wrong when they lost their first ODI series against Bangladesh, which was then followed by two washed-out Tests. The brief dalliance with New Zealand in limited-overs matches, which came after a month off, lacked competitiveness and context but now the real battle starts.

This series is the first of two iconic contests that will make up an eight-Test 2015-16 summer, the second being hosting England after returning from India. For Domingo, it will be a chance to underline his status as a coach, something he has not really had the chance to do since taking over.

When Domingo succeeded Gary Kirsten in June 2013, he took over a team on top. The senior men were still involved and the change in coach was relatively seamless. After a few months, that was no longer the case. The retirements of Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith left Domingo in charge of a team in transition and it was difficult to judge his impact in those circumstances. Now, Domingo's days have reached a point where the side has stabilised enough to assess him, and that is what this summer will shine a spotlight on. It will look beyond Domingo's statistical sensibilities - a well-known strength of his - and search for his skills in man-management, regarded as the secret to any good coach's success.

Over the past few weeks, Domingo's style has been to stay away from his players and give them the space to enjoy their time off before getting stuck in. "When guys are away from the game, I try not to talk too much to players because they are going to be tired of talking to me over the next couple of weeks," he said. "I'd hate to be talking spin to them three weeks before we get there, and we get there and guys are already mentally blown before we've seen a ball being bowled."

But now that they are officially on the tour, Domingo will deal intricately with the main challenge which he expects to be India's spin threat, which he thinks South Africa can overcome. "We anticipate a lot of spin over the next couple of weeks," he said. "Their spinners are only going to be effective, I suppose, if the seamers make some early inroads. If we can nullify their seam attack, it puts our batting in a much better position to deal with their spinners. If we expose our middle order to the spinners early, we will be be under pressure."

That may hold true in the Tests which come at the end of the tour, but at the beginning, Domingo expects pressure to come from India's pace pack. "India, at the moment, have got a few good fast bowlers like Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma. In the World Cup fifty-over game, they bowled a lot more short balls than we would bowl and their seamers outbowled us.They were very aggressive in their lengths and their body language," he said.

But Domingo expects South Africa to respond strongly, especially because the limited-overs clashes come when it is most important for them to make a statement. "The start of the tour is very important because if we don't start the tour well, it can become a long tour," Domingo said. "South Africa's strength has always been that our group of players get on really well, they are enjoying the challenges in different countries. We've got a proud record playing in different countries. We've got a bunch of guys who enjoy going out, seeing different things, experiencing different things."

And they have a coach who will be doing all those things for the first time in India and will be hoping it's everything it's hyped up to be.