India (IND) vs South Africa (SA) 1st Test Live Cricket Score Updates: Shubman Gill’s India are likely to play with two wicketkeepers in the Playing XI in the first Test of the two-match series against South Africa at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata today. India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, at the pre-match press conference on Wednesday, more or less confirmed this. There was some doubt about this, since first-choice wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant is making a comeback to the playing XI after sitting out the West Indies series due to the injury he suffered in the tour of England earlier this year.
Coming into the series, India are third in the World Test Championship standings with 52 points, but having played seven Tests. Meanwhile, defending champions South Africa are fifth with 12 points from two matches.
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South Africa come into the two-Test series after a 1-1 scoreline in Pakistan on tour that ended on November 8th. India, meanwhile, had swept West Indies at home in their last Test series, which was also at home. It must also be noted that the two-Test series against South Africa will be the final time India play Test cricket until August 2026 (when they face Sri Lanka in a series).
Over the two Tests, the South African team will brace itself for the spinning menace of India’s bowling attack with players like Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, and Axar Patel in their ranks. But for a change, South Africa are also coming to India with plenty of bite from the spin department, thanks to Simon Harmer, Keshav Maharaj and Senuran Muthuswamy.
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India vs South Africa: Temba Bavuma’s WTC champs get set for their hardest challenge
IND vs SA 1st Test Live Cricket Streaming: Shubman Gill and Temba Bavuma meet ahead of the first India vs South Africa Test, which will start on Friday morning at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)
Expeditions to the subcontinent seem longer than they actually are for visiting sides. South Africa, on the foothills of their 37-day trek in India, had spent 32 days in Pakistan, by the end of which they were utterly spent.
Usually, the heat hits them first; mercifully, it’s late autumn in the eastern neck of India, where the visitors complete their Test engagements. But the humidity would be draining. Dust and congestion would vex them; gun-toting commandos would flank them, as they were in Pakistan, for coach Shukri Conrad to irritatingly quip: “You come here and all you ever see is armoured vehicles to and from the ground, and you stay in a hotel all day.” Or for batsman Tony de Zorzi to say, sighing: “You have to sleep a bit longer to make your days a bit shorter.”
These are the challenges they would encounter even before they had stepped onto the cricket field. Before the thoroughbred pace pair of Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah begin to hum their new-ball duet, before the dexterous spin trio (or quartet or pair) start thrumming their deathly notes, before the 22-yard begins to creak and crack, before batsmen with twinkling feet and Velcro wrists condemn them to day-long ordeals, before hope withers and nerves snap.