Team India under the leadership of Virat Kohli will look to start 2018 with a World Record during their visit to South Africa. The Indian cricket team Team India have never won a Test series on the South African soil. Their best performance ever came under the leadership of MS Dhoni in 2010-11 when they managed to draw the three-match Test series 1-1.
During 2010-11 visit, the Indian cricket team was the No. 1 team. It had players like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman and the dependable Rahul Dravid in the batting line-up. Among the bowlers, Zaheer Khan was in his prime form along with Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth.
However, during the upcoming tour, Team India’s batting line-up will be led by Virat Kohli with Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara. Among the bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah got his maiden Test call as he could prove deadly on South African pitches. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma are also there to provide depth to Indian bowling.
Another interesting fact is that Team India is yet to lose a Test series since 2015. Their last series win over the Sri Lankans helped Virat and his boys to equal Australia and England’s record for most consecutive series wins (9) on the trot. So, if they win the series in South Africa, it would be 10 in a row, which means a new world record.
The last team to beat India was Australia in 2014-15.
Legendary Indian batsman Rahul Dravid, while speaking to PTI, said the current Indian team has all bases covered for the three-match series in South Africa starting with the first Test in Cape Town from January 5.
Team India will leave for South Africa on December 27 to play 3 Test matches from January 5 to January 28, 2018, in Cape Town, Centurion and Johannesburg respectively.
Apart from Tests, Team India will also play 6 One Day Internationals and 3 T20Is.
Here’s the full squad for the upcoming India vs South Africa Test series –
Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Rohit Sharma, Wridhhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Parthiv Patel, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah.
