The Indian cricket team found themselves caught at the receiving end of a thrashing as South Africa steamrolled them at Centurion without an inkling of hesitation, flexing their fast-bowling muscles against the troubled visitors. But then when the players take the yard for every single game, history gets confined to the books, enabling a new dawn.

The Indian men’s cricket team will be in action for the first time in the new year of 2024 as South Africa await them in Cape Town, all ready to unleash hell upon the proven warriors in the whites. Both the sides have bones to pick after a chequered rivalry over the years which has just extended to another chapter after India were left reeling in agony in the first Test.

For the visitors, it all went wrong in the curtain-raiser of the series after a failed batting display in the first innings followed by a poor bowling showdown that sent them crashing face-first to the mat. South Africa rode high on some impeccable fast-bowling featuring a couple of starry displays from Kagiso Rabada and Nandre Burger.

Both the sides will have their own objectives, stepping into the yard tomorrow as India will be hopeful of sharing the spoils of the series which seems like an uphill task while South Africa will clearly have their eyes set on the grand prize of another Test series win against the struggling visitors.

Venue Watch:

The surface at Newlands Stadium has so far been pacy and assists the fast bowlers emphatically. Expect a similarly juicy track that can prove to be the nightmare for the batters, particularly in the last three days. The average score on the surface batting in the first innings is a meagre 250 which tells volumes about how the fast bowlers can be downright destructive.

Head to Head:

Matches played: 43

South Africa - 18

India – 15

Draw - 10

Match Details:

Match – South Africa vs India

Venue: Newlands Stadium, Cape Town

Date: 3rd January, 2024

Time: 1:30 PM

Squads:

India:  Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Prasidh Krishna, KS Bharat (wk), Abhimanyu Easwaran..

South Africa:  Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham, Nandre Burger, Gerald Coetzee, Tony de Zorzi, Dean Elgar, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Keegan Petersen, Kagiso Rabada, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne (wk).