Preview: India vs South Africa, 1st Test

The India vs South Africa Test series will be starting from today.

Both teams have set their eyes on some crucial WTC points by winning the series.

The first match will be played in Centurion at the SuperSport Park.

Both teams have some major players missing out in this series but still, both the teams are well balanced.

South Africa will be playing their first WTC series while it will be the 3rd series of Team India in this Championship. 

Team India has a poor record in South Africa as they have never won a Test series against South Africa at their home.

India has played 20 away Tests against South Africa out of which they were able to win only 3 Test matches.

On the other hand, South Africa won 10 matches while 7 matches ended as a draw.

India has played 6 Test matches in the two-Test series they have played in the WTC so far, winning three Tests, losing one while 2 games ended as a draw.

Team India will look to win their first-ever away series victory against South Africa.

South Africa has never lost a Test match in Centurion since 2014 while India has lost both of their matches here.

Team India

The biggest question is whether team India will go with 5 bowlers or should they strengthen their batting lineup by adding an extra batter instead of the 5th bowler.

The batting has always struggled in South Africa so, strengthening the batting lineup will be a good move but Team India will probably don’t take this risk and will go with 5 bowlers.

It will be tough to choose between Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer but according to the current form, Shreyas Iyer will most probably play the first Test match instead of Rahane. 

Predicted playing XI

Mayank Agarwal                                                                                                                                                                   KL Rahul (vc)                                                                                                                                                         Chateshwar Pujara                                                                                                                                                         Virat Kohli (c)                                                                                                                                                                 Shreyas Iyer/ Ajinkya Rahane                                                                                                                          Rishabh Pant (wk)                                                                                                                                                             Shardul Thakur                                                                                                                                                               Ravichandran Ashwin                                                                                                                                  Mohammed Shami                                                                                                                                            Mohammed Siraj/ Ishant Sharma                                                                                                                                                  Jasprit Bumrah

Team South Africa

Despite the absence of some of the main players, the home side will enter as favorites in this series because of their ruthless home record in Tests against the Asian sides.

If South Africa wins this series then they will reach the top position on the ICC World Test Championship points table.

South Africa played their last Test series against West Indies where they won both the Test matches convincingly.

Dean Elger will lead the South African side in this series.

South Africa suffered a huge blow before the start of this series as one of their main fast bowlers, Anrich Nortje was ruled out of the series due to an injury.

South Africa will most probably give Mulder a chance to prove himself both as a bowler and a lower middle-order batter in this match.

He will be playing at no 7 position.

Kagiso Rabada will lead the fast bowling section in this series for his side.

Predicted playing XI

Dean Elgar (c)                                                                                                                                                                    Aiden Markram                                                                                                                                                                     Keegan Petersen                                                                                                                                                          Rassie van der Dussen                                                                                                                                                 Temba Bavuma                                                                                                                                                         Quinton de Kock (wk)                                                                                                                                                                     Wiaan Mulder                                                                                                                                                                     Keshav Maharaj                                                                                                                                                            Kagiso Rabada                                                                                                                                                                  Lungi Ngidi                                                                                                                                                                  Duanne Olivier