India v South Africa 3rd Test Preview: Spinners can seal the series for India at Nagpur

India v South Africa 3rd Test Preview: Spinners can seal the series for India at Nagpur: The Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur will determine the fate of the India v South Africa Freedom Series 2015 with the 3^rd Test that is set to start at the venue tomorrow. South Africa will be greeted by fond memories having routed India by an innings the last time that the two teams faced off in a Test at Nagpur. They were also the better team in the limited overs series and won both the T20I and ODI trophies, but come the Tests and Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra have been too hot to handle for the Protea batsmen.

Even before the start of the Tests the talk was about spin and turning tracks and the tone of the series has been similar thus far. The visitors were haunted by the Mohali pitch and the trepidation of playing quality spinners on assisting wickets reappeared when they were bowled out on the first and only day which saw play at Bengaluru. The Indian team already leads the series 1-0 and with the wicket promising to be another turner, Indian spinners can well seal the series for their team.

India:

Since the Indian team is winning and dominating the other team completely; there is hardly anything that has been analyzed from their batting performances. If one goes on to see only opener Murali Vijay and No. 3 Cheteshwar Pujara were the two who scored well in the successful Test at Mohali. Though Shikhar Dhawan’s 47* from the Bengaluru Test will give him and the management lot of confidence, they will have to bat with more caution as South Africa might well field two spinners and some of the best in the Indian line up have been vulnerable to spin.

The bowling attack has been at its sharpest best in recent times and in the 3 innings in the series thus far whichever bowler skipper Kohli has thrown the ball at has got him the wickets. Another admirable fact is the way Virat has rotated his bowlers and never given the South African batsmen a chance to get used to the way the ball approaches them. One possible change in India’s playing XI is bringing leg-spinner Amit Mishra back in who was dropped for Stuart Binny in the second match. Since the pitch is going to assist spin and if they wish to strengthen the batting a bit more, all-rounder Gurkeerat Singh Mann is another option available.

South Africa:

184, 109 and 214 these are South Africa’s scores in the series thus far and it definitely tells you how soft a target they have been. Ashwin and Jadeja have been all over them with 12 wickets each for them out of 30 and no batsman apart from AB de Villiers has been able to score freely. The fact that the two have been really good with the surface assisting them in their exploits isn’t an excuse enough for the Protea batsmen who hold the bat for the world’s number 1 Test team to put up such dismal shows.

Mohali was a forgettable one for them but their approach remained similar at the Chinnaswamy and once again India bowled them out inside a day. Skipper Hashim Amla has had the worst of tours we have seen him on; nothing has changed for him with the formats as he continues his poor run from the T20Is to the ODIs and is just there in the Tests as well. Faf du Plessis’ who has opened his account just once, needs to kick in along with JP Dumiy and so do both the openers Dean Elgar and Stiaan van Zyl, who have equally failed to put runs on the board.

They look depleted without Dale Steyn, the final call on his inclusion will be taken on the morning of the match. But Amla needs to field both his spinners as Simon Harmer was equally effective during the 1^st Test and bowled well in tandem with Imran Tahir.

Form:

South Africa: D L D D W

India: D W W W L

Pitch:

The pitch at the VCA Stadium looks dry and as per the curator will be another surface the Indian spinners will love to bowl on. Since Ashwin has been in the best of his form and Jadeja has matched him wicket by wicket, they could push for another square turner. It will be a pleasant sight for Kohli while Amla will see another ghost here.

Stats:

5 – The India v South Africa 3rd Test will be the 5th Test at the VCA Stadium.

2 – This will be the second occasion when India play South Africa here. The last time the two teams met, South Africa won the match by an innings and 6 runs.

566 – India scored the highest score at the stadium against New Zealand in 2010. Rahul Dravid top scored for India with 191.

253* – South African skipper holds the record for the highest individual score at the stadium. He remained unbeaten on 253 against India in the first innings of the 2010 Test.

340 – The best partnership at the Stadium has been between Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis for the 3^rd wicket, the two added 340 runs v India in 2010.

198 – Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni hold the record for the best partnership by an Indian pair at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur. They struck it while batting together for the 5^th wicket against England, the match ended in a draw.

8/215 – Australian off-spinner Jason Krejza recorded the best bowling figures at the ground with his effort of 8/215 v India in 2008. Despite his best India won the match by 172 runs.

7/51 – South African spearhead Dale Steyn has the second best figures overall and the best by a Protea in Nagpur. He ripped apart the Indian batting to hand his team an innings win in 2010.

Probable XI:

India:

Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, Varun Aaron.