Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra expects India to make two changes to their playing XI for the second Test against South Africa as well. However, India will take on the Proteas in the final Test of the two-match series in Cape Town from Wednesday, January 3. They will hope to level the series after being thrashed by an innings and 32 runs in the Boxing Day Test in Centurion as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said: “The batting disappointed a lot in the last match but the guillotine will not fall on the batters once again because there are no batters in the squad. No one is sitting outside. Only Abhimanyu Easwaran is sitting outside and Rinku Singh has been called, but both will not play. So exactly the same batting lineup will play. Yashasvi (Jaiswal) will be the opener alongside Rohit Sharma, Shubman (Gill) at No. 3, (Virat) Kohli at No. 4, (Shreyas) Iyer at No. 5 and (KL) Rahul at No. 6.”

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However, KL Rahul, with a 101-run knock in the first innings, and Virat Kohli, with 76 runs in the second essay, were the only positives in the first Test. Apart from Kohli, Shubman Gill (26) was the only Indian player to reach double digits in the second innings as well. While expecting Ravindra Jadeja to replace Ravichandran Ashwin in the playing XI, Aakash Chopra says Shardul Thakur will be there.

“At No. 7, you will have Ravindra Jadeja in place of Ravichandran Ashwin. Then there will be a slight debate on Shardul Thakur, whether he should be played or not because he was extremely expensive last time, but he will be played because you need a batter at that number. After that, you will play three fast bowlers. One will be (Mohammed) Siraj and second will be (Jasprit) Bumrah. There will be a long debate on whether Prasidh Krishna should be played or not and you will say – ‘Let’s play Avesh (Khan) and give him a debut’,” Aakash Chopra concluded.