South Africa will start their 2023-2025 World Test Championship cycle with a two-Test collection towards India at house later this yr. The Tests will happen over the standard Boxing Day and New Year interval, at SuperSport Park and Newlands respectively. The New Year’s Test returns to Cape Town after a four-year absence following the Covid-19 pandemic and South Africa enjoying in Australia over final yr’s festive season.

The Tests can be South Africa’s first since beating West Indies 2-0 at house in March this yr, and the second of India’s WTC marketing campaign, following their ongoing matches within the West Indies. The Tests will come on the finish of a tour that can start with three T20Is, and also will embrace three ODIs.

The final time India travelled to South Africa to play Test cricket was within the previous WTC cycle, from late December 2021 to early January 2022. India gained the first Test in Centurion by 113 runs, however misplaced the following two, in Johannesburg and in Cape Town, by equivalent margins of seven wickets. That, nevertheless, did not forestall India from making the WTC last, the place they misplaced to Australia. South Africa, in the meantime, completed third on the desk, narrowly lacking out on qualifying for the ultimate.

South Africa’s massive 5 venues – Kingsmead, St George’s Park, the Wanderers, SuperSport Park and Newlands – together with Paarl’s Boland Park will all get a style of the motion however there aren’t any matches deliberate within the nation’s central area, which incorporates Bloemfontein and Kimberley. Durban, the place a major proportion of the Indian diaspora in South Africa is predicated, will solely host one match, the primary T20I.

“This is an important tour for both teams and I am really pleased that we will have a full tour comprising all three formats of the game,” Lawson Naidoo, CSA chair, mentioned in a press release. “The tour also allows us to showcase the best of South Africa and we have spread out matches across the nation.”

“The Boxing Day Test and the New Year Test are amongst the most important fixtures on the international cricket calendar and the schedule has been planned particularly around these marquee dates,” Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary, mentioned.

The India collection would be the solely males’s worldwide cricket performed in South Africa within the 2023-24 summer time – South Africa host Australia for 3 T20Is and 5 ODIs in August-September – and can be adopted instantly by the SA20. In mid-February, South Africa are as a result of journey to New Zealand for 2 Tests earlier than a mid-year collection within the Caribbean. South Africa will solely play two-Test collection all through the 2023-2025 WTC cycle, with their subsequent three Test collection set for October 2026, once they host Australia.