This is the question that will be answered over the next one month, for sure. However, putting cynicism aside, Virat Kohli, egged on by a pace attack and a winning streak that stands a chance to create history, promised that his side would "enjoy the challenges posed by the conditions" and use the experience to rewrite the history books and push for a maiden Test series win in the “rainbow nation”. 

Openers need to save Kohli and Rahane from exposing to new balls

Ajinkya Rahane will bat at No.5 and as we all know, he is one of the most terrific batsmen of pace bowling and had a pretty good record against the Proteas as well. And that is the reason why Indian openers need to bat for quite a long period to not expose the duo to the new ball. The Kookaburra ball, which will be used in the series, swings a lot when new and it has less of a seam than the Duke ball, which is why it loses the shine quickly. Consequently, as the ball gets older, it becomes easier to counter and if Kohli and Rahane come on then, they will be the biggest threats to the hosts.

Lower-order batting performance 

But this tendency has been changed drastically over the last two years and the team averaged a very impressive 34.52 per stand for Nos. 6 to 9 since April 2015. India will desperately need that to continue on this away run to perform well in South Africa. As per reports, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav have had longer-than-usual batting stints at the nets in Cape Town which indicates that the team have started making them ready for challenges that lay ahead. 

Since the start of India's home season in 2016-17 against New Zealand, India have missed 37 catches in the slip-cordon, which doesn’t paint a good picture of the World No.1 team. India basically started facing these problems since the beginning of 2012-13 when all India's past slippers - Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman - disappeared from the scene. Now, apart from Rahane, no one is that consistent in cordon - not even Kohli or Vijay. 

Although the lack of familiarity can be listed as one of the major reasons, the technique has to be blamed as well. Dravid has also come in and advised the players to narrow their stance while taking low catches, but to no avail as Kohli and Rahul did the exact opposite against Sri Lanka and gave away Angelo Mathews catches, twice. It even allowed him to score a century in Delhi. In South Africa, in the seaming and bouncing conditions, the slip fielders will constantly be creating chances and an assured slip cordon will keep the bowlers fresh.

Much of India’s dominance in the last two years was because of the performance of Indian spinners who had wickets for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But South Africa, who were undone by rank-turners in India in 2015, will not be at their hospitable best and would not provide even a moderately-turning wicket to India. And it was rightly understood, when Durban, the best venue for spinners outside Asia (spinners average 22.31 there), was excluded from the venues list of the Test series. 

So, for the series, India can’t go for more than one spinner in the team and as a result of it, Ravichandran Ashwin or Ravindra Jadeja, whoever is picked, will be subject to bowling without the support of the other. That decision has probably been made easier with the fact that Jadeja is down with a viral infection. While the team management informed that a call on his availability would be taken on the morning of the match, the fact that Jadeja was absent from training and has been advised 48 hours of rest makes the matter clear about his chances. However, throughout the series, surfaces will demand more attrition and patience from them than they've been used to. Instead of going for attacks with the duo, Kohli will have to pick one bowler, who could bowl around the seamers and keep them in the game by keeping one end tight.