South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma says Indian bowling attack nullifies home advantage in upcoming Test series

South Arica skipper Temba Bavuma believes that India's bowling attack for the upcoming two-Test series nullifies the challenges of playing in different conditions. Bavuma also attributed India's success in overseas conditions while playing red-ball cricket to their skillful bowling attack. He made the comments in Centurion where the two sides will face off each other in Boxing Day (Dec. 26) Test.

"We understand conditions a lot better so you'd expect us to adapt a lot better but their bowling is quite strong," said Bavuma. "The fact that they've been able to achieve such success is because of their bowling attack and that kind of nullifies the advantage we have. It's more between the batters and how the batters take on that challenge," he added.

India, notably, have never been able to win a Test series in South Africa and Bavuma said they take a lot of pride in keeping the record intact.

"There's a lot of pride attached to that - that we've been able to keep that record intact as a South African team... all of us as players also feel that," he said. "But we understand playing against India comes with certain challenges and it's those types of challenges we would like to focus on. Playing against India comes with a lot more eyes and a lot more scrutiny in terms of everything we do. So it's accepting that." he added.

India will be full strength when they take the field, at least in terms of batting, with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli both coming back to the side after skipping the white-ball leg of the tour.

As for the bowling, India's ODI World Cup 2023 hero Mohammed Shami won't be taking part in the series with injury but Jasprit Bumrah will feature in the playing XI. Another important player who will be missed is wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant who is still recovering from the injuries sustained in the car crash he suffered in December last year.