The India vs South Africa 2nd Test will get underway on Wednesday, January 3rd, at Newlands in Cape Town.
Even though India, after losing the first Test in Centurion by an innings, can’t win the series that they called their “final frontier”, Rohit Sharma’s team will fight to avoid a series loss and also, lest one forgets, there are crucial WTC points at stake for both teams. India have slipped to the 6th place in the WTC points table, while South Africa will send a third-string side to New Zealand for 2 Tests from where they are unlikely to come back with any points.
For the India vs South Africa 2nd Test, both teams are set to make at least one forced change. South Africa will miss Gerald Coetzee in the second Test due to a pelvic injury. Lungi Ngidi and Wiaan Mulder are pace-bowling options on the bench and so in spinner Keshav Maharaj.
India will be boosted by the return of Ravindra Jadeja, who missed the first Test due to neck spasms. Who Jadeja replaces will be a point of discussion.
While there wasn’t much help for R Ashwin in Centurion, he still returned with figures of 19-6-41-1, which shows that he asserted control while Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna leaked runs.
Avesh Khan is added to the squad, who brings hit-the-deck qualities like Krishna, but is uncapped at Test level. Mukesh Kumar, who made his Test debut in the West Indies, has almost similar experience and first-class numbers as Avesh. But Mukesh’s first-class bowling economy of 2.69 is much better than Avesh’s 3.1. Also, India might be worried about giving Avesh a Test debut considering how loose Prasidh was on his Test debut in Centurion.
With Jadeja returning in the India vs South Africa 2nd Test, that strengthens India’s batting. In that case, India can opt to drop Shardul Thakur, who has only 7 Test wickets in his last 8 Test innings.
India vs South Africa 2nd Test: India’s Predicted Playing XI In Cape Town
Rohit Sharma (c)
Yashasvi Jaiswal
Shubman Gill
Virat Kohli
Shreyas Iyer
KL Rahul (wk)
Ravindra Jadeja
Mukesh Kumar
Mohammed Siraj
Jasprit Bumrah
Prasidh Krishna/Avesh Khan
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