Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah will be key for the team in the upcoming two-match Test series against South Africa. The series between the teams will begin from 26th December in Centurion followed by a second game to be played on 3rd January.
Going into the series, all the focus will be on Jasprit Bumrah as he will be making a comeback in Test cricket after a while. He will be leading the Indian bowling attack and if India has to fancy their chances of winning the series, he needs to step up big time.
The focus first will be on the Boxing Day Test, which will be played on 26th December. India would want to start the series on high and for that, Jasprit Bumrah needs to be at his best because if that happens, the Rohit Sharma-led side will automatically be favourites.
Going into the Boxing Day Test, Jasprit Bumrah will be optimistic because of the record that he possesses in the matches. The India vice-captain has played 3 games and has picked 20 wickets, which suggests the kind of impact he has had in Boxing Day games.
Apart from this he also has picked one fifer as well. It happened against Australia in Melbourne in 2018, where he won Man of the Match as well. He would be hoping to bag another POTM and help his team win.
Jasprit Bumrah in Boxing Day Tests:
Matches – 3.
Wickets – 20.
Fifers – 1.
MOTM – 1 ( Vs Australia at MCG).
Jasprit Bumrah missed the last Test series against South Africa due to injury. He would be hoping to make a statement this time around because he has missed a lot of Test cricket for India. It remains to be seen how he goes about his business.
IND vs SA: India’s Predicted XI for the first Test against South Africa; Jasprit Bumrah to lead the bowling attack
India are expected to go with the combination of four seamers and one spinner in the first Test. It is likely that Ravindra Jadeja will get the nod ahead of Ravichandran Ashwin and we might see Prasidh Krishna getting his debut cap.
Here’s Indian Predicted XI for the first Test against South Africa
Rohit Sharma (C)
Yashasvi Jaiswal
Shubman Gill
Virat Kohli
Shreyas Iyer
KL Rahul (wk)
Ravindra Jadeja
Shardul Thakur
Jasprit Bumrah
Mohammed Siraj
Prasidh Krishna