India will be looking at reversal of fortunes when their four match Test series against South Africa begins in Mohali on Thursday.
Having been beaten in both the shorter formats of the game, captain Virat Kohli would hope the team turns a tide from MS Dhoni led men in blue in T20's and ODI's. Where Proteas won 2-0 in the three-match T20 series, they prevailed 3-2 in ODI's to go into the Mohali Test with momentum by their side.
However, speedster Dale Steyn remained cautious and stated winning their first Test series in India in 15 years would not be an easy task.
India's biggest hurdle in any positive outcome from the series would be AB de Villiers who has struck four centuries so far on tour three in ODI's and one in the practice match against Board President's XI. His flamboyant hitting in the one-dayers was most evident in the final ODI in Wankhede where three Proteas batsmen hit centuries Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and de Villiers himself.
This propelled South Africa to 438and eventually a win by a massive 214 run margin. It is also here that Indian team director Ravi Shastri allegedly clashed with pitch curator Sudhir Naikfor preparing a flat wicket, which isn't what the home team wanted. Since then, there have been questions raised whether pitches should infact cater to the home side — a point which has been agreed to by former captain Kapil Dev and current captain Kohli.
Where de Villiers has been the 'Superman' (coined by Sunil Gavaskar), Test captain Hashim Amla has been a bust. He's failed to come good and he would like to add to the four Test centuries in India.
Proteas' fast bowling attack has been fruitful so far with Steyn and Kagiso Rabada picking up ten wickets while Morne Morkel, who is fighting fitness issues, has picked up seven wickets.
Proteas' spin option in JP Duminy is still nursing his hand injury and may not take the field.
Switching to the Indian side of things, the depleted pace attack is further affected by the absence of Ishant Sharma who is serving a one match ICC ban for aggressive behavior in the previous Test series against Sri lanka.
Keeping that in mind, India are likely to rely heavily on spin to get them the required 20 wickets. There is a strong possibility that Kohli and co. will go for three spinners in the final side. Ravindra Jadeja who has been sensational for his Ranji side Saurashtra this season — picking up 38 wickets, is expected to feature alongside Ravichandran Ashwin. Ashwin has time and again been touted as the game changer by the visiting side and he's been the one to send de Villiers back to the pavilion in both the T20 matches before picking up an injury in the first ODI in Kanpur.
The third spin outlet would possibly come in the form of leggie Amit Mishra. The trio of left-arm slow bowling (Jadeja), aggressive offies (Ashwin) and leg-spin (Mishra) would provide variety to India and difficult for the Proteas.
On the batting front, India are spoilt for choice at the top.
Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan are all strong contenders for the opening slot. In his last innings here, Dhawan scored a scintillating 187 against Australia in 2013. But so far in this series, he's failed to shine. His counterpart Rohit on the other hand has played the big innings.
India would be boosted by the fact that they begin the series here, in Mohali, where they haven't lost since 1994 that is 10 Test matches back. During this tenure, Javagal Srinath, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, laxmipati Balaji, Amit Mishra and Zaheer Khan added five wicket hauls to their name.
The third spin outlet would possibly come in the form of leggie spinner Amit Mishra. The trio of left-arm slow bowling (Jadeja), aggressive offies (Ashwin) and leg-spin (Mishra) would provide variety to India and difficult for Proteas.