South Africa and India take each other on in the first of 2 test matches starting on Boxing Day, with Centurion Park being the host venue for the opener. We take a look at the game from a betting angle.
India have had a successful tour of South Africa to date, drawing the T20 series 1-1 and winning the ODI series 2-1.
SERIES BETTING
South Africa are 9/4 to win the series, with India 14/10 and the drawn series is 19/10. You can also get markets such as top South African batsmen where Markram is a 33/10 favourite.
Click here for the series markets
SOUTH AFRICA
Themba Bavuma returns to international cricket action and will lead the South African team. Nandre Burger who played well in the ODI’s has been included in the squad and Dean Elgar has announced that this will be his final series.
South Africa Test squad: Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham, Nandre Burger, Gerald Coetzee, Tony de Zorzi, Dean Elgar, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Keegan Petersen, Kagiso Rabada, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne (wk)
South Africa will play only their 4th test match of 2023, having beaten the West Indies 2-0 back in February and March of this year. The only other test match in this calendar year was in Sydney against Australia, where the match was drawn and South Africa lost the series 2-0.
INDIA
Rohit Sharma will captain the Indian side, which face some injury problems but has also been strengthened with the return of some top players and I am particularly looking forward to seeing Bumrah in action in South African conditions.
India Test squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Prasidh Krishna, KS Bharat (wk), Abhimanyu Easwaran
By contrast to South Africa, India will play their 8th test match of 2023, with their most recent action being against the West Indies in July where they won a 2-match series 1-0. They previously played Australia in June, in England, losing the World Test Championship by 209 runs, and earlier in the year they hosted Australia in a 4 match test series, winning 2-1.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
India have yet to win a test series in South Africa and the last time these 2 sides played was in January 2022, where South Africa won at Newlands by 7 wickets to complete a come-from-behind 2-1 test series victory. Prior to that India had beaten South Africa 5 test matches in a row.
BETTING – click here to bet
South Africa (5/2)
Draw (16/10)
India (16/10)
There is some rain forecast at Centurion which is why the draw has been shortening in the betting.
SUGGESTED BETS:
Frist innings top Indian Bowler – Bumrah at 2/1
I think that Bumrah is going to thrive in the South African conditions, and he is going to be very tough to handle at the top of the order.
First innings top South African Batter – Markram at 3/1
Elgar and Bavuma are ahead of him in the betting but Elgar must be pretty rusty and the same can be said about Bavuma and I am looking for Markram to make a strong start to the series.
Click here for all betting on international cricket taking place this week.
Note: odds correct at time of writing but subject to change
