Picture Credit: ICC
After winning both the T20I and the Test series against New Zealand at home, India's stern Test starts tomorrow with their first assignment on the South Africa tour, the opening Test match set to commence on Sunday at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. While India would be aware of their dismissal record at home, winning just three of their 20 Test matches in the rainbow nation, they would also know that this is a chance at creating history after already creating a reputation of themselves as one of the betters teams in Test match cricket.
Moreover, captain Virat Kohli's commitment to Test cricket is well known and he would be pumped for the challenge in a country where batting could be difficult. However, as some of the former and current South African players have pointed out that the home advantage would be a huge factor especially when some of the senior India batters' form has been on the decline and the options on the bench have little experience of playing in this part of the world.
Moreover, the weather will also play a big part in the match and here is how the weather forecast for Day 1 of the match at Centurion looks like.
Will rain play spoilsport on Day 1 of the series opener?
As per the weather predictors for December 26, 2021, while there is a good possibility of rain on Day 1, much of it is expected in non-playing hours. Having said that, there is likely to be cloud cover for almost the entire day with some chances of a drizzle here and there. It is likely that it will rain overnight before the start of the Test with a 10 am start and hence the team winning the toss could look to bowl first.
Day 1 Weather forecast for Centurion Test
On December 26, the minimum temperate being predicted is around 16-17 Degrees with the maximum likely to be around 21-22. Moreover, rain could play hide and seek throughout the match especially during the final session where chances increase to as high as 47%. The match is set to commence at 1:30 pm as per the Indian Standard Time (IST) with the toss scheduled at 1:00 pm.