IND vs SA: How India's openers have fared in previous Test series against South Africa

India vs South Africa: Ahead of the first Test in Centurion, let's take a look at how the Indian opening pairs have fared over the years in the African nation.

South Africa remains one of the final few frontiers for Team India to conquer. They have beaten Australia in Australia, and that too twice, and will be on the verge of beating England in their own backyard until next year. But, this African nation continues to elude them. There's true pace and there's true bounce, making it difficult for batters to score. The fact that India are yet to win a Test series in SA goes to show that the nations opening pairs haven't had it easy at all.

India vs South Africa: How have the Indian openers performed in the past Test series against the Proteas? (GETTY IMAGES)

-OPEN IN CENTURION AT YOUR PERIL-

The three-match Test series will begin at SuperSport Park in Centurion on December 26. As statistics suggest, batting has never been easy at Centurion for visiting teams. The visiting team’s main batting order from positions 1-7 averages 25.67 since 2016. On the other hand, the home team's batting order averages 42.11.

Moreover, it has been among the challenging venues for openers. The only opener with a hundred at Centurion since 2016 is Stephen Cook in 2016.

Batting comparison of openers at Centurion since 2016 in Tests. (HT PHOTO)

In addition, the visiting openers' average of 20.54 at Centurion, which is the worst across 26 venues that have hosted 5 or more Tests since 2016.

Lowest batting averages of visiting openers at a venue since 2016. (HT PHOTO)

In fact, 2 out of 4 fifties by visiting openers at Centurion have come from England batters.

-CAN INDIAN OPENERS BUCK THE TREND THIS TIME?-

The numbers are equally disappointing for Indian openers over the course of time. By now, it is clear that South Africa has been one of the toughest battlefields for India. Out of the 20 Tests played here, India has only won 3 matches.

India’s opening stand has an average of 27.56, which is the worst among all the countries which India has toured. The country’s opening pair takes more than 9 innings to score a fifty-plus stand in SA. The last fifty-plus stand by an Indian opening pair in South Africa came in 2010 at Centurion by Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir -137 runs.

India's opening partnerships average in away countries (HT PHOTO)

That's not it; Indian openers have scored 1671 runs at an average of 21.70 in South Africa, which is the lowest among all the touring countries.

Indian openers in away countries (HT PHOTO)

-BRACE FOR IMPACT-

The struggle will be very real when the two giants lock horns. For the visitors, they will be without both their regular openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. And considering Mayank Agarwal's recent form, it will be interesting to see whether skipper Virat Kohli goes with KL Rahul or uncapped batter Priyank Panchal.

Irrespective of who opens, one thing is clear; they will have to bat their skins out to give India a strong start.