South Africa vs India 2018: India's probable playing XI for the third Test 

The city of Johannesburg, easily the biggest in South Africa, is sometimes termed the modern-day El Dorado. For the visiting team India, the real version of the fabled 'city of gold', presents a chance to fight off the mythical demon-like South African pacers that have harried the golden Indian batting stars, turning them into fool's gold.

As the Test series enters its final leg, the Indian side will be hoping to pull one back, before the red ball turns into white for the limited-overs leg.

Here are the men who could line-up to accomplish the task in the third Test:

It's been a hugely disappointing tour for Murali Vijay: touted to be India's rock of Gibraltar at the top, the opener came a cropper, garnering a meager 69 runs in the first two games. A slow starter, Vijay has struggled to find his strokes, consistently nagging at deliveries outside off like an annoying professor during a viva voce.

After the Indian team decided to offload Shikhar Dhawan and bring in KL Rahul, it felt that Rahul's free-flowing strokeplay would help ease the stress on a misfiring Vijay. Yet, Rahul couldn't get going in the only Test he played, looking out of sorts as South Africa's pacers laid out their landmines on the pitch.

No. 3 is a pivotal position in Tests, and Cheteshwar Pujara knows it fairly well. Yet, the Pujara who anchors the hull so well on subcontinental wickets has a muddled frame of mind when it comes to batting overseas, having failed to impress during crucial tours to England, Australia, New Zealand, and now South Africa. His hobbling running style and the subsequent barrage of run-outs have not helped his cause.

The only Indian batsman who has shown even a semblance of a fight is captain Virat Kohli, who, barring a suspicious technique against outswingers and a tendency to play late across drifting leg-side deliveries, has shown the right intent with the runs to match. The onus will be on him to salvage something from this tour.

There has been enough hue and cry about Ajinkya Rahane's exclusion: one of the most dependable Test match players was suddenly warming the benches at the expense of Rohit Sharma, whose Test match batting looks as out of place as a grand-dad on the Kingda Ka roller-coaster. With one Test to go, his assurance on the crease can hopefully bring out some sanity in an imploding middle-order.

His first-class career might be as old as some of the current U-19 cricketers, but the diminutive Parthiv Patel has still not been able to crack the code at the highest level. The wicket-keeping technique oscillates between abysmal, average and acceptable, while the batting is nothing to write home about. The journeyman continues to ply his trade for India, perhaps not for very long.

There wasn't extreme pressure on Ravichandran Ashwin when he landed in South Africa, for it was realized that his bowling won't find conducive surfaces in the rainbow nation. After an insignificant role in the first Test, Ashwin fared better at Centurion, and will be itching to end on a high if he gets a chance in the third Test.

There is no doubt that Hardik Pandya's biggest strength is his ability to conjure clutch performances out of nowhere, but barring the 93 in the first Test, he has failed to create much of an impact. Till now, he has bowled like a schoolboy and acted like one too (read: bizarre run-out in the previous game), and will need to come up with a much more assuring display, especially with the ball, to shut his doubters.

In one of the most inexplicable captaincy calls recently, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was dumped from the team, citing 'horses for courses' as an excuse. Ishant walked in, but Bhuvneshwar's consistency to find the right lengths, and his ability to extract pace and movement without fail was sorely missed. His batting down the order is an added plus.

There can't be doubts about his ability to make the ball talk, but the laidback Mohammed Shami, who struggles with injuries more often than not, doesn't seem to be bowling at full spate. He has been good in phases, but the overall performance seems to have been below expectations.

It might take some time, but Jasprit Bumrah is slowly getting accustomed to the ropes of Test cricket. From Allan Donald to Kagiso Rabada, South Africa's fast bowling stars have been impressed by the way he consistently stays 'fast and accurate', and the youngster, who has so skillfully cemented his place in the limited-overs set-up, will be expected to end his maiden Test tour by leaving a mark.