Team India and South Africa will meet each other in the 3rd Test at New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg with different objectives. South Africa, who are already 2-0 up in the series, will be looking to clean sweep the no.1 Test team. On the other hand, India will be looking to avoid another embarrassing defeat.
Incidentally, India has never lost a Test at Wanderers and has never been clean swept in South Africa ever. Both of these records will be on the line today.
With the rumors of the curator preparing a green pitch that will assist the fast bowlers, South Africa will be waiting for the Indian batsmen, with their mouths watering to bowl first on the green top. Faf du Plessis might be inclined to give either Chris Morris or Andile Phehlukwayo a go in place of spinner Keshav Maharaj.
India, on the other hand, might be looking to atone for their selection blunders so far in the series and bring in the right batsmen for the job and right bowler for the pitch. Ravi Shastri, India’s head coach admitted that Team India fell short of practice and that led to them losing the series.
South Africa are eager to avenge their drubbing in 2015 when they were ambushed by India in India, which ended their 9 year run of never losing a series away from home. Winning the series will also get them closer to that no.1 ranking in Tests and with Australia following India for a Test series, South Africa may fancy their chances of becoming no.1 in Tests.
Both the teams are serious about this Test and none of them are taking this as a dead rubber. India might fancy their chances on this green pitch, as it brings their pacers in the game, which have done exceedingly well.
Toss: India won the Toss and opted to Bat
Playing XIs:
India: Virat Kohli (c), Parthiv Patel (wk), Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Ajinkya Rahane, Bhuvneshwar Kumar
South Africa: Faf du Plessis (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel, Lungisani Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo
