India vs South Africa, 2nd Test: Toss result and playing XIs for today's match, umpires list and pitch report

India will take on South Africa at Newlands in Cape Town in the second Test of the two-match series starting Wednesday, January 3. The visitors went into the opening Test at SuperSport Park in Centurion with the aim of registering their maiden Test series win in the Rainbow Nation but ended up crashing to defeat by an innings and 32 runs.

Both India’s batting and bowling were below par in the opening Test. Sent into bat after losing the toss, the visitors managed to put up only 245 on the board. Things could have been worse but for KL Rahul’s resolute century. In the second innings, Virat Kohli (76 off 82) was the only Indian batter who stood up to the challenge.

If we talk about their bowling, Jasprit Bumrah was the lone warrior for the visitors with his four-wicket haul as the Proteas posted 408 in their first innings. All-rounder Shardul Thakur and debutant Prasidh Krishna went for plenty of runs, while Mohammed Siraj too wasn’t highly effective though he picked up a couple of wickets.

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IND vs SA 2nd Test toss result

South Africa have won the toss and opted to bat first. Dean Elgar, playing in his farewell Test, said:

“Pitch looks interesting. A few snakes in the pitch which will hopefully come into play later on.”

For the Proteas, Temba Bavuma is out injured, so Tristan Stubbs gets his debut. Lungi Ngidi and Keshav Maharaj come in as well, while Gerald Coetzee misses out due to injury.

India have made two changes. Ravindra Jadeja comes back for Ravichandran Ashwin. Shardul Thakur misses out; Mukesh Kumar replaces him.

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IND vs SA 2nd Test match playing XIs

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (w), Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Mukesh Kumar.

South Africa: Dean Elgar (c), Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Tristan Stubbs, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (w), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Nandre Burger, Lungi Ngidi.

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IND vs SA 2nd Test pitch report

Lots of grass, although there are a lot of cracks as well. Grass in the cracks is interesting, reckons Sanjay Manjrekar. He doesn't expect it to behave the same if the ball pitches there, as it would in the bare areas.

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IND vs SA 2nd Test match players list

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Ravindra Jadeja, Srikar Bharat, Abhimanyu Easwaran.

South Africa squad: Dean Elgar (c), Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Keegan Petersen, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Nandre Burger, Lungi Ngidi, Keshav Maharaj, Zubayr Hamza, Wiaan Mulder, Tristan Stubbs.

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IND vs SA 2nd Test match umpires

On-field umpires: Ahsan Raza, Langton Rusere

TV umpire: Paul Reiffel

Match Referee: Chris Broad