India will play South Africa in a three-match Test series starting with Boxing Day Test Match from Sunday (26th Dec) at Centurion.
Cricket South Africa announced on Monday that due to a wave of Covid-19 cases, South Africa’s forthcoming home cricket series against India will be played without spectators.
After Test Series, India will compete against SA in three one-day internationals starting from January 19.
In an official statement, the South African Cricket Board stated that the decision to play behind closed doors was reached in discussions with the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI).
Without Rohit Sharma, India versus South Africa 2021:
Rohit Sharma’s injury devastated Team India just as they were about to leave for the South Africa tour. During the training sessions, the recently announced limited-overs skipper of Team India and Vice-Captain of the Test Team suffered a knee injury. Priyank Panchal, a young man, was picked as his replacement.
Rohit Sharma has been Team India’s top batter in the World Test Championship, not just as an opener but also as a batter. Team India will have to reconsider their starting line-up if he is unavailable for the test series.
India’s Ideal Test Playing XI against SA
Without Rohit Sharma, the ideal playing 11 for the team could be Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari, Shreyas Iyer, Jasprit Bumrah & Mohammed Siraj,
Key Indian Players to watch out against SA –
Virat Kohli (Captain)
Virat Kohli, India’s Test captain, will begin the high-profile series against South Africa under intense scrutiny for his captaincy and recent batting form.
Kohli’s recent Test form is a source of concern for the team. The batsman has not hit a Test century in over two years, despite having 70 International centuries to his name, third only behind Sachin Tendulkar’s 100 and Rocky Ponting’s 71.
Kohli’s last Test century, a 136 against Bangladesh at Eden Gardens in November 2019, was also his previous International century.
Since then, Kohli has played 23 Test innings without recording a century. Not only that, but he had two consecutive subpar test seasons, scoring 116 runs at 19.33 in six innings in 2020 and 483 runs at 28.41 in 17 innings so far in 2021.
Ravichandran Ashwin
Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s best off-spinner, has returned to South Africa with fresh confidence, having made a successful comeback to white-ball teams while maintaining his domination in the longest format.
Only behind Anil Kumble (619) and Kapil Dev (417), Ashwin recently passed Harbhajan Singh to become India’s third-highest wicket-taker in Tests (434). He has 427 wickets in 81 test matches.
Ashwin is in South Africa after winning the Man of the Series title in the two-match home series against New Zealand with 14 wickets.
Shreyas Iyer
Shreyas Iyer, a middle-order batsman, has been a consistent member of the Indian white-ball side for the past four years, appearing in 22 ODIS and 32 T20Is.
However, he was given the opportunity to represent India. Only this year, in the longest format of the game, in the recently ended two-match series against New Zealand.
Shreyas began his Test career with a bang, scoring over 200 runs in a series against the ICC World Test Champions. In his maiden overseas Test trip for India, Shreyas will be eager to keep the momentum going.
