India is all set to face South Africa away from home in a full-fledged series, consisting of three Tests, six ODIs and three T20Is, starting in Cape Town from January 5.

South Africa at home are a formidable side and indeed, India’s record in South Africa isn’t inspiring. India had never won a Test series in South Africa, a 1-1 draw in 2011 being their best result.

But South African side can sometimes be moody; they can let the climate off the field infiltrate the air on it. In recent times, they have suffered through absence of key players and that suggests that bench strength isn’t great. India’s batsmen don’t mind pace and swing troubles them more than bounce does. If they can blunt South African pace, this could still be an open series.

Test squad:- Virat Kohli (Captain), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Parthiv Patel, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah.

ODI squad:- Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar.