When India landed in South Africa after their dream run in their home ground, expectations were high from the No.1 Test team. However, things did not go the visitors’ way as the strong batting line-up of the team led by Virat Kohli collapsed in the two Test matches, giving the Proteas an unassailable 2-0 win in the three-match Test series.

As India play South Africa in the third Test at Johannesburg, beginning Wednesday, there are chances that Test specialist Ajinkya Rahane can make a comeback to help India avoid a whitewash. Meanwhile, Faf du Plessis and his boys too will aim for a 3-0 clean sweep.

Speaking ahead of the third Test match, skipper Virat Kohli said, “Definitely the things that worked for us last time, we’ll focus on that. Although there is more grass on the wicket this time, you know the pace and bounce will probably be similar to what it was in 2013. Their bowling attack is slightly different but (Morne) Morkel and Philander are playing, which was the case last time also. Look, we have to take the positives from that Test, what worked for us, what other things we have to repeat again to be able to perform at this game or this venue.”

Meanwhile talking about Proteas pace attack, Vernon Philander said, “You have to put the ego aside. We all want to be the hero at the end of the day. We all want to put up our hand to be Man-of-the-Match but not every surface is going to allow that. It is about being mature enough to understand that your end might not be the one to strike from and to play your role accordingly to make sure the other bowlers get the best conditions to strike.”

Here are three interesting facts about the Wanderers ground:

1- Even though, Wanderers is considered as one of the best cricket grounds, yet the Indian squad had not lost any match in this field.

2- The Proteas pacer Vernon Philander will play his 50th Test on Wednesday and the speedster had 21 wickets in his four Tests on this ground.

3- In the last four matches played on this ground, wickets have fallen on average every 28 runs and the run rate on this ground has been 3.25 per over.

Teams:

India (From): Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Parthiv Patel(w), Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

South Africa (From): Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis(c), Quinton de Kock(w), Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel, Lungisani Ngidi, Theunis de Bruyn, Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Duanne Olivier