Aiming to script history in the Rainbow Nation, Team India will lock horns with South Africa in the Boxing Day Test on Tuesday in Centurion. Winning a Test series on South African soil has been a distant dream for India so far. Mohammed Azharuddin failed to do it in 1992 and so did Sachin Tendulkar (1996) and Sourav Ganguly (2001). Though Rahul Dravid (2006-07), MS Dhoni (2010-11 and 2013-14) and Virat Kohli (2018-19 and 2021-22) won Test matches but none of them could win the elusive series in South Africa.
Rohit Sharma and his men are desperate to bring glory but the weather might spoil the part on Boxing Day in Centurion. The SuperSport Park was under covers on Sunday evening after India had their first practice session. On Christmas Day, both teams had to cancel their outdoor sessions due to rain.
As per Accuweather.com, rain threat looms large on Tuesday with a 96 per cent chance of precipitation with 38 per cent chance of thunderstorms. It further revealed that Centurion will see thunderstorms between 7 AM to 9 AM local time, before a spell of heavy showers in the afternoon.
The conditions are expected to worsen as the day progresses. “Mainly cloudy with occasional rain and a thunderstorm,” said the website, predicting a 71 per cent of cloud cover.
Rohit will have a job at hand and a win might just be the much-needed soothing balm required to heal the World Cup wounds even though the scars will remain. The Indian captain wants his unit to be the first one to win a series in the Rainbow Nation in India’s ninth attempt since 1992.
“These are very important matches in terms of where we stand as a team. Also to look back that we have never won a series here as well, it’s a big opportunity for us to do well here,” Rohit said on the eve of the opening Test.
“We came pretty close the last two times when we toured here but again we have come to this place with a lot of confidence to try and achieve what nobody (Indian) team has ever achieved in this part of the world,” he added.
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