On the ongoing tour of South Africa, the Indian national cricket team will play a two-match Test series starting December 26 at the SuperSport Park in Centurion.

The Men in Blue have played in the finals of the last two editions of the World Test Championship and are one of the best teams in the Test format of the modern era. In the upcoming matches their aim will be to win a Test series in South Africa for the first time.

Ahead of the Test series, the Indian national cricket team is practicing at the Tuks Oval in Pretoria, which is 45 minutes away from SuperSport Park in Centurion. Considering the first test, the team management does not want any outsider to witness their practice match within the team.

Team India banned outsiders from watching practice match at Tuks Oval

This strategy is known as “closed door” training and the Indian national cricket team does not want to give an idea of ​​what its strategy would be for the first Test match, according to PTI. This strategy is mainly used in football, where only the media can watch the warm-up matches. Later, the media is also said to move away when the coaches come in for tactical training.

Coming into India’s practice session, the team played an intra-team match in which Shubman Gill reached a century, while Yashasvi Jaiswal ended up scoring a half-century.

The Indian national cricket team managed a victory when it last played a test match in Centurion in 2021, but lost the last two matches and failed to win the series. However, the Indian national cricket team is in top form and has a world-class bowling attack.

The Temba Bavuma-led team won a Test series against Bangladesh 2-0 the last time they played a Test series at home. The Proteas will once again have home advantage and could be slight favorites to win the match in Centurion.

However, the surface at SuperSport Park is always player-friendly and has plenty of seams and bounce. Indian pacers like Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah, who are ‘maul-striking’ bowlers, could also get a lot of mileage out of the field.

Besides that, Virat Kohli He also has a decent record in South Africa, and with the kind of form the ‘modern maestro’ has had this year, the Indian team will once again expect big runs from the right-handed batsman. indian captain Rohit Sharma He will also look to contribute and add some runs with the bat.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will return to international cricket after the 2023 ODI World Cup final and aim to start afresh after the loss against Australia.

The Indian national cricket team is currently ranked first in the ICC World Test Championship and also in the men’s test team rankings.