Ajinkya Rahane's prolonged poor run of form might make him face the axe and make way for either of Hardik Pandya or Rohit Sharma for the Cape Town Test. It might also happen that Rahane's omission from the playing XI may help both Pandya and Rohit to feature in the playing XI together. 

"Again, it all depends on the team composition. All of them are batting really well. Rohit, on the back of his performances across formats, is in with a chance of playing," Bangar said at the pre-match conference.

Rahane's form has been wretched since the start of the home series against England in late 2016. Since the start of the series, Rahane has scored 617 runs at an average of 26.82 over a period of 14 Tests with the only hundred coming against a below-par Sri Lanka at Pallekele.

Rahane's overseas form in the past is the only stat that favor's Rahane's selection in the XI. However, his lack of runs in the recent past and that both Rohit and Pandya has taken their opportunities in the meantime has edged them ahead of Rahane. 

More importantly, in the two matches that he has played on his comeback to Test cricket, Rohit had scores of 102 no, 65 and 50 not out.

The India vs South Africa series caps off from today at Cape Town as both teams get down to play the first Test. Dale Steyn is in all probability going to miss the Test as the management doesn't  want to risk his injury immediately and Rahane's omission will mean two key players for their respective teams will not feature in the very first Test of the series.