Pune: After registering a comprehensive 203-run victory in Visakhapatnam, India will look to continue their dominant run and seal the ongoing three-Test series when they face South Africa in the second match beginning on Thursday at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium.
In the first Test, the hosts were ruthless in all departments. Rohit Sharma marked his foray into Test match opening, with twin hundreds shattering many records, while his opening partner Mayank Agarwal too scored a double ton, thus pleasing the entire team management.
The duo laid the foundation for the team and it was followed by the combined efforts from Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami that the team extended their cent per cent win record in the ICC World Test Championship.
However, they would be wary of the fact that Pune is the only venue of India's solitary defeat, against Australia in 2017, at home in over six years -- a fact which will charge Virat Kohli and his men to set the records right.
South Africa, on the other hand, will try to take confidence from their first innings effort to score 431 in the previous Test and put in a better performance with both bat and ball to prevent India from clinching a win at Pune.
Faf du Plessis will be expecting his bowlers to be a lot more accurate and incisive, particularly in the spin department.
India are unlikely to make any change to their playing XI while the Proteas might bring in an extra pacer to make early inroads into the strong Indian batting line-up.
