With the series poised at 1-1 after the two Tests, India and South Africa will lock horns in the decider on Tuesday in Cape Town. Team India has never won a Test series on Proteas soil and Virat Kohli and Co. have a golden opportunity to achieve history. Interestingly the odds are in South Africa’s favour as they have never lost a Test match to India in Cape Town. India have to achieve a couple of firsts to become probably the best Test side in the world at the moment.
Both teams have played quality cricket so far in the series and it’s the bowlers who managed to outshone the batters on the tricky surfaces of Centurion and Johannesburg. South Africa are expected to go in Centurion with the winning combination of the second Test, while India are expected to make a couple of changes with Virat Kohli’s return and Mohammed Siraj’s injury.
Here are the players to watch out for in the third Test between India and South Africa
1. Virat Kohli: The Indian captain will return to lead the team in series-decider and ‘Virat Kohli the leader’ needs the ‘Virat Kohli the batter’ to script history on the Proteas soil. The 33-year-old has failed to hit a century in his past 23 Test innings and is under a lot of scanner for his poor conversion later. He has also faced a lot of scrutiny for his vulnerability of edging the balls outside off stumps. Kohli desperately needs to bring his A-game on the table to help India claim one of their most memorable wins.
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2. Rishabh Pant: The flamboyant wicketkeeper batter received a lot of flak after playing a rash shot in the second innings of 2nd Test which cost him his wicket on a duck. The southpaw first got a snorter from Rabada that hit his helmet visor when he tried to defend awkwardly, and then he charged to convert a short ball into a half volley. The result was an edge to the keeper. In the last 13 Test innings, Pant has managed to hit just one half-century, while he got out on a single-digit score six times which includes a duck in Johannesburg. The southpaw was the hero of India’s emphatic series win in Australia last year and he needs to emulate that form in the third Test to silence his critics.
3. Dean Elgar: The South Africa skipper will look to continue his sublime form in Cape Town to lead his team to a series win. The South African cricket team is going through a rejuvenation period and a series win over giants like India will surely boost their morale and confidence. Elgar has led the team from the front in the first two Tests with his resilience and gritty batting as he took a couple of body blows to battle out Indian pacers in Jo’burg. Elgar has a big task ahead of him on Tuesday which might put South African cricket back on track.
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4. Ajinkya Rahane: The senior India batter is under a lot of scanners for his below-par batting in the past year. Kohli, on the eve of series-decider, indicated that Rahane will get another chance in the series-decider. It is going to be a crucial match for Rahane as it might also turn out his last in whites for India as young players like Shreyas Iyer and Hanuma Vihari are knocking on the door for a place in the XI.
5. Marco Jansen: The lanky pacer made his international debut in the ongoing series and impressed many with his fierce bowling. He has taken 12 wickets in the first two matches and troubled a lot of Indian batters. The left-arm seamer got rid of India’s stand-in captain KL Rahul on both occasions in the second Test and Proteas will want him to emulate his performance in Cape Town.
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