India vs South Africa 3rd Test: Stats Preview: Virat Kohli, Rahane, Shami, Rabada eye big records

Cape Town, January 11: India will be facing South Africa in the series-deciding third Test at the Newlands Stadium here on Tuesday (January 11). India, under Virat Kohli, will require a collective effort to win the Test and register their maiden series win in the Rainbow Nation.

Along the way, India and South Africa players can achieve some personal milestones as well. Here is a quick look at them.

1 Virat Kohli chases twin milestone

100: Kohli is going through a trough since making a hundred against Bangladesh in late 2019. Two years have passed since he made an international hundred, and fans are eager to see him returning to the high-scoring ways. Currently, he has 70 international hundreds and one more century can see him go level with former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who has 71 centuries.

146 runs: Kohli needs to score 146 runs to go past 8000 runs in Test cricket. Sachin Tendulkar (15921), Rahul Dravid (13265), Sunil Gavaskar (10122), VVS Laxman (8781) and Virender Sehwag (8503) are other Indian batsmen who have aggregated more than 8000 runs in Test cricket.

2 Shami’s exclusive milestone

5 wickets: Mohammed Shami has been in good form in this series against South Africa. The pacer had taken a five-wicket haul in the first Test at Centurion to reach the 200-wicket mark in Test cricket. Now, another five wickets can take him to a memorable feat, the second Indian pacer to bag 50 wickets against South Africa. He currently has 45 wickets, and he can join the company of Javagal Srinath, who has 56 wickets against the Proteas.

3 Rahane eyes big record

79 runs: Middle-order batsman Ajinkya Rahane is also searching for big runs since his epochal hundred against Australia at Melbourne. But he can enter an elite club if he scores 79 runs in this Test, Indian batsmen with more than 5000 runs in Test cricket. Rahane will be the 13th Indian batsmen to achieve that feat after Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, Dileep Vengsarkar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohammad Azharuddin, GR Viswanath and Kapil Dev.

4 Rabada’s big moment

50: South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada, who turned the match in his favour with a fiery spell at Johannesburg, will play his 50th match at Cape Town. From 49 Tests, Rabada has taken 226 wickets with 10 five-wicket hauls and 4 10-wicket hauls in a match.

5 Ngidi eyes big record

50: South Africa pacer Lungi Ngidi needs 7 wickets to complete 50 wickets in Test cricket. From 12 Tests, Ngidi had taken 43 wickets so far.