On the opening day of the first Test in Cape Town, Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave India an early advantage by claiming three South African scalps with the scoreboard at just 12 runs. In the second innings, Mohammed Shami took the charge of the Indian pace attack and he was well supported by Bumrah who, had won the trust of the selectors with the consistent performance in the limited-overs cricket and in his first Test, he was quite impressive with his control and variations and returned with match figures of 4/112. In the second Test of the series, Bumrah continued his attack as in the second innings he claimed three wickets. Shami also bagged four wickets in the same innings which helped India to wrap the South African innings at 258. Rabada admitted that the Indian attack has given a good challenge in the two Tests.

After losing the first Test by 72 runs and the Centurion Test by 135 runs India already lost the hope of winning the first ever Test series on South African soil. Both wins boosted a morale of the home side and they do not seem in the mood of giving an inch to their opponents as Rabada stated that they are aiming for a whitewash against India.

Kohli who visited South Africa after scoring 1059 runs at an average of 75.64 in ten Tests in the year of 2017, showed his class again as in Centurion he played a 153-run knock and completed his 21st Test century. The 22-year-old pacer observed that Team India are too dependent on their skipper.

"I think they do rely on him. But it is just like we rely on a couple of players too. I'm not saying India don't have any quality players, they do. But it's just a fact - Kohli scores most of their runs.

The Kohli-led team proved their dominance in almost all the format of the game as the team spotted on third in T20I rankings and with just one point difference from South Africa the Indian team is in second position. In the longest format of the game, the Indian side equalled Australia’s record of winning nine Test series in a row in which helped them in maintaining their top position in the Test rankings. Rabada believed that the visitors came here with a positive mindset but when the two top team clashes this kind of result can be expected. He also emphasized that whatever results come on-field the South African players share a good relationship with their Indian counterparts.

"Playing against the Indians is extremely challenging. They are known for their great batsmen and they've got really good bowlers as well. So they are very competitive, they're throwing everything they have at us, and their batsmen want to make a statement.