Bengaluru: Later this month, the home Test series against South Africa will be India’s last opportunity to play red-ball cricket before they focus exclusively on white-ball matches until next August.With 24 Test World Cup points, Shubman Gill and his men will be looking to make the most of the Test matches to be held in Kolkata and Guwahati. In order to set the stage for these key games, attention now turns to the squad and form of the players.
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The prelude to the series begins here at the BCCI Center of Excellence (CoE) on Thursday when India ‘A’ takes on South Africa ‘A’ in the second and final four-day match.While India won the opener – a thrilling match – by three wickets, the focus shifts to the home side’s key players and South Africa’s Test captain Tembu Bavuma, who missed the recent Test series against Pakistan due to injury.In the previous match, one of the biggest gains for India was the return of Rishabh Pant to match fitness. After a three-month injury lay-off, Pant, who leads the team, will look to get more game time.KL Rahul, who was part of the Indian squad for the ODI series against Australia, returned to the team for training with the red ball. The 33-year-old will look to the pace-friendly surface at the CoE. Sai Sudharsan will have to find his mojo after struggling as an opener in the first game in which he returned scores of 32 and 12. Spinner Kuldeep Yadav will complement pacers Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Akash Deep.In the opponent’s camp, the match is the most important for Bavuma. He last played a Test match in June when he led South Africa to the WTC title against Australia.Bavuma praises the young Indian teamBavuma was all praise for the Shubman Gill-led Indian side. The South African skipper said that in the era after Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and R. Ashwin, the team stood up to be counted. “I think the guys have the talent and skill to make up for the lack of experience,” he said.
