India begin their delayed tour of South Africa on Boxing Day when the two nations play the first of three Test matches, which we now know will be played behind closed doors because of the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
This series forms a part of the World Test Championship so there should be a real competitiveness to the action at Centurion where both teams will be looking to go one up with two to play in a high profile series.
South Africa
This will be the first Test series South Africa have played since they were in the West Indies in June. They have had a diet of T20 cricket recently, which was to be expected given that there was a World T20 at the end of it. Attention very much turns to the red ball game for the next few weeks though and it will be interesting to see how they adjust to that, particularly when it hasn’t been easy to practice with everything going on at the minute.
You sense if South Africa are going to get anything out of this match then they are going to have to bat very well. The days where sides can show up against a touring Asian side and expect an easy ride with the bat have long gone and the Proteas will be tested in that department. The obvious other thing they have to do is bowl well to an Indian batting unit which has so much depth it is untrue. South Africa will hope home conditions assist them with that.
India
This will be the second Test series India have played in the last month after they dominated New Zealand at home recently. I think it is fair to say that this will be the bigger of the two challenges but having gone to Australia and won and over to England and led before they left, you sense they certainly won’t be competitive in this series. Another series win here would have them looking very handy in the World Test Championship standings.
You sense India have been fuelled by losing the first of the first World Test Championship and are determined to get a shot at redemption in 2023. The way India are able to switch between formats without weakening at all is very impressive and they deserve their billing as the leading Test side in the world right now, even though they didn’t get over the line in that final earlier in the year. They have no weakness with bat or ball and appear a formidable outfit.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account to get up to £25 in free bets! Perfect offer for this series! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Team News
South Africa are missing Anrich Nortje who is out of the series with injury so Duanne Olivier is expected to make his return to Test cricket. Wiaan Mulder is likely to get the all-rounder slot to add some depth to the batting.
India are going to be without Rohit Sharma for this match as he is also injured. KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal are expected to open the batting. The decision to make with the ball appears to be over whether Mohammed Siraj or Ishant Sharma gets the nod.
Betting
Quinton de Kock has a decent record on this ground and having played countless Indian Premier League campaigns he’ll know all about this India attack so I expect him to have a big match here. The keeper-batsman averages more than 61 on this ground with a century, a 95 and a couple of other 50s so he should be very comfortable when it comes to batting here. That makes me think that he can cover his performance over the course of the match.
That line sits at 105.5 so with a decent innings somewhere along the line you would think he will go very close to covering this line. He is sure to get the chances to take catches here too. He has 33 off them in seven matches including six in an innings, five in one and twice taking four catches in the same innings. That should reduce the number of runs he needs to cover this performance and between his bat and his gloves I expect him to go beyond the 105.5pt mark.
Tips
Back Q.de Kock’s Performance – Over 105.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2021
