In a matter of next 4-5 days, the most anticipated Test series between India and South Africa will either get decided or it will get spiced up further. The latter possibility will only happen if India can do what so many believe is the impossible, and pull off a victory at SuperSport Park.

The task of the visitors isn’t enormous only because of their performance in Cape Town but also because of the fact that South Africa’s attack in their own conditions is as deadly as it can get. Every subcontinent team including India, that has played in Centurion has been beaten by an innings.

SuperSport Park offers a plenty for the bowlers, but that isn’t all as the Proteas line-up enjoys the battle of being on a challenging track. Despite the fact that the Indian cricket team has the bowling attack to intimidate the hosts as they did at Newlands, they’ll need their batsmen to score sufficient amount of runs on the board. The South African XI is expected to have four pacers and six specialist batsmen unless the spinner becomes useless and a seventh batsman is added to avoid a collapse.

Although Centurion has been known to have a nightmare for most of the batsmen in the world, there have been 39 centuries in the 22 Tests played there, including two double-centuries. It only portrays that getting runs is difficult, but not impossible, which the new Team India likes to do, especially in tensed situations. South Africa already know that but India will have to believe in themselves to maintain the spice in the ongoing Test series.

Team combinations

With Steyn out, Morne Morkel will become the most experienced pacer in the South African attack even though he is not considered its spearhead. Vernon Philander’s career-best at Newlands and Kagiso Rabada’s elevation to No.1 in ICC Test rankings has brought Morkel under the scanner but at SuperSport Park. The batsmen may be watching for Philander’s seam movement and Rabada’s pace but Morkel’s extra bounce will pose the real threat at the ground.

Ottis Gibson’s wish for four-pacers means that South Africa will be forced to make one change with one of Chris Morris, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo and Duanne Olivier to replace Steyn. While Morris offers pace, Ngidi also had back issues but took nine wickets on his return to first-class cricket and has been in impressive form all summer. The six batsmen strategy will mean no space for either Temba Bavuma or Theunis de Bruyn.

India’s top-order batsmen will be looking to step-up to the occasion and Cheteshwar Pujara will surely want to be that man. He batted for two-and-a-half hours in the first innings in Cape Town and if he has been paying attention to what Ottis Gibson has been telling batsmen, that the batsmen need to get some runs before the ball gets you in these conditions, he will know that seeking to score quicker may be a better approach for the remaining series

With the Indian skipper Virat Kohli hinting that there was no need to panic, and didn’t suggest changes in the bowling combination or the composition of the side. India don’t seem to be in a hurry to drop Rohit Sharma based on one Test, which leaves the opening combination up for allows India to retain the right-left opening combination and also opens up a slot in the middle order for Ajinkya Rahane to claim.

Pitch and weather conditions

Traditionally, SuperSport Park is the surface offers pace and bounce and there is often swing; on the eve of the match, the pitch looked brown with no layer of grass on it. Things should be no different even though this Test pitch will be groundsman Bryan Bloy’s first since he was hired two years ago.

Weather is expected to be hot and dry and seems to have burnt the grass on the pitch brown. Temperatures are set to rise as teh match progresses, likely to be in the early 30s with no rain forecast, although the chances of afternoon thundershowers on the Highveld can never be diminished.

Stats to look out for:

• The hosts have their best win percentage at SuperSport, with victories in 17 out of 22 Tests, a 77% success rate. They have only lost twice there, once to each of England (2000) and Australia (2014).
• India have only played one Test in Centurion, on their 2010-11 tour. They were bowled out for 136 in the first innings and lost by an innings and 25 runs, though the match did mark Sachin Tendulkar’s 50th Test century.
• Mohammed Shami needs one more scalp to reach 100 Test wickets.

Predicted XIs

South Africa: Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Vernon Philander, Chris Morris/Lungi Ngidi, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel

India: KL Rahul, Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli (c), Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane/ Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami and Jasprit Bumrah