South Africa are set to host the Indian cricket team in the much-awaited opening Test match in Centurion starting on December 26. A threat of rain looms over SuperSport Park and pitch curator Bryan Bloy revealed how the surface will play in the Boxing Day Test.
According to a report from PTI, Centurion will witness heavy rain on the opening two days of the match. Other weather reports also suggest strong chances of precipitation during a five-day match at SuperSport and fans can witness a draw in the series opener.
Meanwhile, the surface at Centurion’s SuperSport Park is expected to support pace bowlers and batters are likely to struggle for big scores. Curator Bryan Bloy believes that rain will make playing conditions helpful for the pacers in the last three days and batters will find it difficult.
“I can’t guarantee the forecast but if it remains under covers for the better part of the two days then that might be tricky to bat first,” Curator Bryan Bloy said. “Because its been covered for so long and hasn’t been rolled for so long, we don’t know how long we will have to get the field ready for play in current situation.
“So if it’s a Day-3, 10 am start, it doesn’t give us much time, because it’s in the morning and you start playing at 10 and really three hours of cool weather and early morning will be tricky. If its covered for two days, I would presume bowlers would benefit from it.”
Meanwhile, India are facing some injury issues ahead of the Boxing Day Test. In-form opener Ruturaj Gaikwad and star pacer Mohammed Shami are ruled out of the series while Ishan Kishan has withdrawn due to personal issues.
India Test Squad for South Africa series: 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, Abhimanyu Easwaran