India tour of South Africa: Days after dropping the teaser, Star Sports has released its full promo featuring former coach Ravi Shastri ahead of the India versus South Africa Test series which kicks off on December 26 at the SuperSport Park in centurion. Titled ‘First Ka Thirst’, the promo shows Shastri highlighting the highs of India in South Africa before pointing out that a Test series win in the Rainbow nation awaits. Towards the end of the video, the 59-year-old takes a swipe at the Australian cricket team, indirectly referring to India’s first-ever Test series win down under during the 2018-19 tour. Follow India tour of South Africa Live on InsideSport.IN.
India tour of South Africa: Ravi Shastri talks about India’s ‘First Ka Thirst’ in new Star Sports promo, takes swipe at Aussies, Watch Video
Ravi Shastri, who completed his impressive stint as the head coach of the senior India men’s cricket team after the T20 World Cup 2021 in November this year, is once again ready to relaunch his career as a broadcaster. Fans are excited to see Shastri get back in his old avatar and the latest promo can just make the wait even more difficult for them.
Seeking their 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕-ever test series win in 🇿🇦, #TeamIndia is ready to quench their #FirstKaThirst against the Proteas! 🥳
Are you ready to #BelieveInBlue?
1st #SAvIND Test | Dec 26, Broadcast starts: 12:30 PM; Match starts: 1:30 PM | Star Sports & Disney+Hotstar pic.twitter.com/KQNkxjegb8
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) December 23, 2021
Originally scheduled to leave for South Africa on December 9, India, amid Covid-19 threat, arrived in the country finally on December 16. After spending a day in quarantine, India are sweating out hard in the field to get acclimatised to the South African conditions ahead of the first Test.
A new day and a fresh new start 👍🏻
We’re back at it 💪🏻#TeamIndia 🇮🇳 | #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/xceSqZ8z6v— BCCI (@BCCI) December 20, 2021
After failing to win a Test series on their previous seven tours, India are looking to script history under the leadership of Virat Kohli. Overall, India have managed to win three out 20 matches played in the country. The first win had come under the leadership of Rahul Dravid in 2006. MS Dhoni was the captain when the Asian giants won 2010, while the third win came under the watch of Virat Kohli in 2018.
Notably, India have lost both their Test matches in Centurion – the venue for the first match on the Boxing Day.
India have a fair chance of beating the hosts this time around. While South Africa’s batting line-up looks young and inexperienced, the bowling unit also dealt with a major blow when Anrich Nortje was ruled out of the 3-Test series on Monday. Moreover, Quinton de Kock might miss the the last two matches as he is expected to take a paternity leave to attend the birth of his first child.
India Squad for Test Series – India Tour of South Africa
Virat Kohli (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Priyank Panchal.
Standby Players: Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla.
India tour of South Africa: Ravi Shastri talks about India’s ‘First Ka Thirst’ in new Star Sports promo, takes swipe at Aussies, Watch Video
