India vs South Africa: Rohit Sharma and Co brace to overcome the final frontier in Centurion - watch video

The first Test between India and South Africa starts on Tuesday at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. Team India are aiming for a historic series victory as they have not tasted series success in this format since their first outing in South Africa in 1992. Ahead of the much-awaited first Test, the official handle of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) shared a video encapsulating the visitors’ preparations for the series opener. “Centurion. The Boxing Day Test is here! Let’s go Team India,” read the caption of the post on X, formerly Twitter. In the video, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah were seen sweating it out ahead of the game against the Proteas.

The two-match Test series, starting on Boxing Day, will be India’s ninth away series in South Africa since 1992. “We have never won a series here and it’ll be a big thing if we do it here. I don’t know whether it’ll be able to take away the pain of World Cup defeat. If we are able to achieve it then it’ll be a good thing. Itna mehnat kiya hai toh kuch toh kitna banta hai [Since we have worked so hard, we deserve this at least],” India captain Rohit said at the pre-match press conference on Monday . “The way we played in the World Cup, you expect to go all the way. We worked hard for the cup. There are certain things we didn’t do well in the final. It is hard after a loss like that. But you have to find a way to move on and look forward,” Rohit added. The Indian cricket team will head into the Tests having defeated South Africa in the ODI series 2-1. The three-match T20I series between the two nations ended 1-1.