The three-match Test series between India and South Africa will start on Sunday
CENTURION: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-Dec 25th, 2021) Virat Kohli has vowed to rebound by leading his country to an historic triumph against South Africa in a three-match Test series.
The Test series between India and South Africa will start by tomorrow.
Leading his team to victory is a good chance for Virat Kohli for his comeback after he was removed from captaincy of India’s one-day and T20 teams.
According to AFP, South Africa is the only regular Test-playing nation where India has yet to win a series.
Vice Captain KL Rahul said that they had worked really hard to win series away from India. He said, "We’ve won series in England and Australia, which gives us a lot of confidence. We haven’t won a series in South Africa, which gives us extra motivation to do our best,".
South African captain Dean Elgar said that he thought the teams were evenly matched. He said that India are number one in the world for a reason but the fact that they were playing in their own back yard gave as an advantage.
Despite losing New Zealand in last year’s world Test championship final, India are the top-ranked Test team, five places ahead of South Africa, who have lost several key players to retirement in recent years.
Crucially, it has the fast-bowling fire power to match South Africa’s in conditions which usually favour pace.
No fewer than ten of India’s 18-man squad have toured South Africa before.
Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ishant Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav and reserve wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha are on their fourth tour of the country.
Ajinkya Rahane and Mohammed Shami are on their third tour, while Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah were part of the closely-contested 2017/18 series which South Africa won 2-1.
Rahul said,"We know what to expect and we’ve had great preparation,".
He said that pace and bounce is very different to other countries and it was very important that they came here early and had preparation in the middle.
Rahul said that India were likely to maintain their recent strategy of picking five bowlers, which he acknowledged would lead to a "very difficult discussion" about settling on five specialist batsmen.
Team:
South Africa (likely): Dean Elgar (captain), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wkt), Wiaan Mulder, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi.
India (from): Virat Kohli (captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Shreyas Iyer, Risabh Pant (wkt), Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Jayant Yadav, Priyank Panchal, Wriddhiman Saha (wkt).
Umpires: Marais Erasmus, Adrian Holdstock (both RSA).
TV umpire: Allahuddien Paleker (RSA).
Match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM).
