With the series already lost, South Africa will be looking to avoid a series whitewash in the third Test against India starting in Ranchi on Saturday.
South Africa are yet to pick up their first points of the World Test Championship, but will need a massive change to their approach and execution to change that in the final match.
Meanwhile, having picked up a record breaking 11th successive home series win, Virat Kohli’s India continue to scale down new heights in cricket’s longest format, where they have long maintained their ascendancy.
Since Kohli took over as full-time captain, India’s win/loss ratio of 3.555 is by far the highest, with New Zealand coming in at a distant second, with a corresponding number of 1.583, among those teams to have played more than 10 matches in this period. Little about India or South Africa’s performance this series suggests that things will pan out differently in Ranchi.
For South Africa, the problems are deep-rooted. They have failed to come to terms with the retirements of stalwarts such as Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn and AB de Villiers.
LEADING MAN: Virat Kohli has led India to the #1 spot on the planet. Picture: Rajanish Kakade/AP.
It has left them prone to top-order capitulations, as a result of which they are left to play catch-up from very early on in the game. Since the start of 2018, India’s top-order batsmen have, between them, managed 23 scores of 50 or more, as opposed to the 19 such scores by South Africa’s batsmen.
That gulf has carried over to this series, and has now been widened by the absence of Aiden Markram, who has been ruled out of the Ranchi Test after fracturing his right wrist.
TOUGH SPOT: India celebrates the win of the second test. Picture: ANI.
Faf du Plessis, South Africa captain: "You have to be on top of your best game. If you are not, you are going to be found wanting and we were found wanting in this Test match."
A cloudy day is expected in Ranchi, with brief spells of sunshine, and some showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Rain could, in fact, have a big say on all days of the Test. In the only Test that this stadium has hosted, Cheteshwar Pujara batted for over 11 hours to ground Australia into the dust with a double-century, in a drawn affair in the 2016-17 Border Gavaskar Trophy.
African News Agency