Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar believes that Rohit Sharma has a chance to play in the series opener against South Africa in Cape Town on January 5, which will be the first Test of the series. However, he let it be decided on the morning of the match.

Team India is in South Africa for a 50-day long tour which has commenced a string of foreign tours. India will play three Tests apart from six One-Day Internationals and three T20Is in SA.

On the eve of the match, Bangar bats for Rohit’s inclusion for the first Test as he revealed that a bowler-friendly surface will force them to insert one more batsman while a batting friendly pitch will come in favor of an extra bowler.

“Whenever the wicket suits, if it’s a bowling-friendly track then obviously we might go with four bowlers and if conditions are perceived to be batting-friendly we might opt for five bowlers. Well, more or less that has been the pattern for the last 24 months or so wherein the team management has made the choices about the team composition. As of now the conditions we found, we expect the ball to seam around a bit on day one. On days two and three, they are going to be very good batting conditions. We will take into consideration the extent of moisture tomorrow on the surface and we will take it from there,” former cricketer said.

Rohit has been in tremendous form in 2017 while November and December have been his month. In this period, he made hundred in all three formats. In the Test arena, he is on a roll of three 50+ scores, where one is an unbeaten hundred. On the other hand, Ajinkya Rahane is going through a bad phase and has struggled horribly in the Test cricket.

The first Test will undergo from January 5 in Cape Town.