South Africa toured India in 2025/26 for two Test matches and won the series 2-0. R Kaushik’s tour report as well as the match reports appeared in the 2026 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
India v South Africa in 2025/26
Test matches (2): India 0, South Africa 2 (24pts)
One-Day Internationals (3): India 2, South Africa 1
Twenty20 Internationals (5): India 3, South Africa 1
For the first time since Hansie Cronje captained them to a 2-0 sweep in March 2000, South Africa pulled off a series victory in India, winning both Tests to retain the Freedom Trophy under the inspirational leadership of Temba Bavuma. He had missed the 1-1 draw in Pakistan while he recovered from the calf injury suffered during the World Test Championship final at Lord’s in June. Now he reiterated his value with a composed unbeaten 55 in the second innings of the first Test at Kolkata, on a poor surface of uneven bounce that aided spin from the start.
South Africa had not been well stocked in the spin department since Hugh Tayfield’s 1950s heyday, but here they had the tools to cash in on helpful conditions. After taking 13 wickets with his off-breaks in Pakistan, Simon Harmer added 17 at 8.94: no one had taken more at a lower cost in a Test series since England’s Tony Lock collected 34 at 7.47 against New Zealand in 1958. Harmer’s haul included 8-51 in the match at Eden Gardens, where India dissolved for 93 in their second innings, chasing just 124.
The hosts were handicapped by a neck injury to Shubman Gill, their captain, who retired hurt after facing three balls in the first Test, and took no further part in the series. He had led the way with the bat in England, but his absence could not justify one meltdown after another. India did not help their cause with addled selection, and the constant shuffling of their batting order. But that should take nothing away from South Africa, who played the better cricket, and seized the key moments.
After being undone by Harmer in Kolkata, India were blown away by the all-round brilliance of Marco Jansen in the second Test – Rishabh Pant’s first as captain, and Guwahati’s first as a Test venue. It was their heaviest defeat by runs. There was some consolation in the form of a 2-1 success in the one-day series, in which Virat Kohli averaged 151, including record-extending centuries No. 52 and 53 in the first two matches. That was followed by a 3-1 victory in the T20s, in which the fourth game, in Lucknow, fell foul of fog (not uncommon in northern India in the winter). With spinner Varun Chakravarthy taking ten wickets at 11, India extended their unbeaten T20 series streak to 15, but it came at a price: After a string of low scores, Gill was dropped from the squad chosen to defend the T20 World Cup early in 2026.
South Africa’s touring party to India, 2025/26
*T Bavuma (T/50), OEG Baartman (50/20), C Bosch (T/50/20), MP Breetzke (50), DT Brevis (T/50/20), N Burger (50), Q de Kock (50/20), T de Zorzi (T/50), D Ferreira (20), MZ Hamza (T), SR Harmer (T), RR Hendricks (20), RA Hermann (50), M Jansen (T/50/20), GF Linde (20), KA Maharaj (T/50/20), AK Markram (T/50/20), DA Miller (20), PWA Mulder (T), S Muthusamy (T), LT Ngidi (T/20), AA Nortje (20), K Rabada (T), RD Rickelton (T/50), LL Sipamla (20), T Stubbs (T/20), P Subrayen (50), K Verreynne (T). Coach: S Conrad.
Markram captained in the T20s. Ngidi was added to the Test squad as cover for Rabada, who missed both games with a rib injury. KT Maphaka was originally selected for the T20s, but failed to recover from a hamstring problem, and was replaced by Sipamla. De Zorzi suffered a leg injury in the third ODI, and missed the T20 series.
First Test at Kolkata, November 14-16, 2025
South Africa won by 30 runs. South Africa 12pts. Toss: South Africa.
India were tamed inside eight sessions by a South African side playing every bit like the reigning world Test champions. On a surface where the ball turned alarmingly and bounced unevenly from the off, India called the shots for the first two days. But they misfired spectacularly chasing a small target, with Harmer’s off-breaks to the fore. India’s calamitous total of 93 was their second-lowest in a Test at Eden Gardens, after 90 against West Indies in 1983/84.
Twelve months previously, New Zealand had prevailed 3-0, with left-arm spinners Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel thriving on spin-friendly decks to consign India to their first home series defeat in a dozen years. South Africa followed their playbook, helped by the fact that, unusually, they had two high-quality spinners of their own, in Harmer and Maharaj. The visitors were confident after fighting back to square the series in Pakistan a few weeks earlier, and were further encouraged by the return of Bavuma, their most accomplished batsman in recent times. South Africa had not won a Test in India since February 2010, but their all-round versatility gave them belief.
In a bid to cash in on the conditions, India fielded four specialist spinners – three of them all-rounders – for the first time since December 2012. But it was the genius of Bumrah that shone through on the first day. After Bavuma won the toss, openers Markram and Rickelton got South Africa off to a breezy start with 57 inside the first hour, before Bumrah produced a peach that shaped away late, snaked past the left-handed Rickelton’s outside edge, and hit off stump. He led the charge after that, finishing with his fifth five-for in nine Tests, as South Africa crashed to 159. Siraj and left-arm spinner Yadav lent excellent support and, though six of the top seven made starts, Markram’s 31 was the highest score.
India lost Jaiswal early in reply, but a stand of 57 between Rahul and Washington Sundar, up at No.3, made inroads into South Africa’s modest total, with Rahul passing 4,000 Test runs (Jadeja later followed suit). But Sundar was caught at slip to give Harmer the first of his eight wickets in the match and, three balls later, India lost their captain – for the rest of the series. Gill had slog-swept Harmer for four, when he clutched his neck, and trudged off after cursory treatment for a spasm. India never recovered. Gill had been in red-hot form, following 754 runs in England with a fifty and a hundred in the 2-0 victory over West Indies. Though the Indian batting order looked good on paper, they suddenly seemed rudderless.
Harmer and Jansen shared seven wickets, as India declined to 189, a slender lead of 30. Still, it looked all over when four wickets for Jadeja left South Africa gasping at 60-5, which soon became 91-7. But the adhesive Bavuma found a willing ally in Bosch, who helped him add 44, and eventually dragged the total to 153. Trusting his defence, and playing the ball late with soft hands, Bavuma remained unbeaten on 55, the only score above 39 in the match.
Despite that, India’s target was just 124. It wasn’t a formality but, given they had seven accomplished batsmen even without Gill, they ought to have got there. Instead, their vulnerability against accurate, gentle turn was exposed, after Jansen removed the openers in his first seven balls. Sundar again held firm with a stoic 31, and Patel produced a late flourish – but Harmer’s 4-21 sent them crashing to 93 all out, as Eden Gardens, once India’s theatre of dreams, turned into a nightmare.
Player of the Match: SR Harmer.
Second Test at Guwahati, November 22-26, 2025
South Africa won by 408 runs. South Africa 12pts. Toss: South Africa.
In Shubman Gill’s injury-enforced absence, Pant led India in a Test for the first time. It was not a happy start: South Africa stormed to a massive victory, inflicting on the hosts their heaviest defeat by runs. Harmer, the hero of the narrow win in Kolkata, was again among the wickets, but the star of the show was Jansen, who backed up a furious 93 with six first-innings wickets in a hostile display of well-directed, short-pitched bowling.
Staging its first Test, Guwahati’s Barsapara Stadium served up an excellent surface. The eastern part of India is notable for black-soil bases, but the Assam Cricket Association flew in hundreds of tons of red soil from Mumbai, producing a track with considerable bounce, and equal opportunities for batters and bowlers.
South Africa appeared to have thrown away the advantage of batting first when they stumbled to 247-6 by the first-day close, thanks to an excellent display of left-arm wrist-spin from Yadav. His accuracy and guile ensured that Rickelton and Stubbs, promoted to No.3, did not build on starts; each of South Africa’s top five passed 25, but no one reached 50, until Muthusamy turned the tide in their favour.
Left out of the first Test, despite winning the series award in Pakistan, he was untroubled by pace or spin during a five-hour exhibition of positive batsmanship. He put on 88 for the seventh wicket with Verreynne, but the real damage was still to come. Jansen’s previous Test-best, an unbeaten 84, had also been against India, at Centurion in December 2023. This time, he unleashed a flurry of big shots against dispirited bowlers. While Muthusamy breezed to a fluent maiden century, Jansen hammered seven sixes and six fours in a 91-ball blitzkrieg, until the prospect of his first hundred in any form of representative cricket seemed to weigh him down, and he succumbed to nerves.
With India needing victory to share the spoils, South Africa’s 489 looked mountainous, but Jaiswal and Rahul sparked a strong riposte with 65 for the first wicket. At 95-1, they were still in the game, only for Jaiswal to cut Harmer to point, sparking an extraordinary collapse, with Jansen again in the vanguard. Making light of uneven bounce and the absence of natural movement, he aimed short – with spectacular results. Jurel, Jadeja, Reddy and Bumrah all fell to the bouncer barrage, while Pant perished to a terrible stroke, charging Jansen and edging an ugly hoick through to Verreynne. This came soon after tea, the first break on the third day: the two intervals had been swapped because, as the light fades rapidly in northern India, play started at 9.30; the 20-minute tea break was taken at 11.30, and the traditional 40-minute lunch around 1.50.
India crashed to 122-7 in the blink of an eye and, even though Washington Sundar – inexplicably pushed down to No.8, despite having been his side’s most solid batsman five places higher in Kolkata – resisted for 48, the hosts slumped to 201, handing South Africa a decisive 288-run advantage. Jansen finished with 6-48, but Harmer’s three wickets included both men who made it past 22; Markram, in his 50th Test, held five catches.
Armed with such a massive lead, South Africa batted with confidence but no great urgency, riding on a sparkling 94 by Stubbs to reach 260-5, before Bavuma declared. That set India an unimaginable 549 to level the series: the more realistic possibility was negotiating around 108 overs for a face-saving draw. They had batted longer to deny England at Old Trafford in July, but there was no reprise, with Harmer again undermining some feeble resistance.
Jadeja batted with discipline, as he had in Manchester, but there was no support worth the name, and Harmer took 6-37 to boost his series haul to 17 at less than nine. Markram picked up four more catches, giving him nine in the match, a Test record for an outfielder, beating Ajinkya Rahane’s eight for India against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2015. All came in the slips, though a couple involved dashing towards gully. India keeled over for 140, their reputation as tigers at home in tatters.
Player of the Match: M Jansen. Player of the Series: SR Harmer.
Limited-overs leg
1st ODI At Ranchi, November 30, 2025 (day/night). India won by 17 runs. India 349-8 (50 overs) (RG Sharma 57, V Kohli 135, KL Rahul 60, RA Jadeja 32); South Africa 332 (49.2 overs) (MP Breetzke 72, T de Zorzi 39, DT Brevis 37, M Jansen 70, C Bosch 67; H Rana 3-65, K Yadav 4-68). PoM: V Kohli. Rohit Sharma’s three sixes took him past Shahid Afridi (351) as the leading six-hitter in ODIs.
2nd ODI At Naya Raipur, December 3, 2025 (day/night). South Africa won by four wickets. India 358-5 (50 overs) (V Kohli 102, RD Gaikwad 105, KL Rahul 66*); South Africa 362-6 (49.2 overs) (AK Markram 110, T Bavuma 46, MP Breetzke 68, DT Brevis 54). PoM: AK Markram. South Africa equalled the highest successful chase to beat India at home (India had also scored 358 against Australia at Mohali in 2018/19, when they also lost by four wickets).
3rd ODI At Visakhapatnam, December 6, 2025 (day/night). India won by nine wickets. South Africa 270 (47.5 overs) (Q de Kock 106, T Bavuma 48; PM Krishna 4-66, K Yadav 4-41); India 271-1 (39.5 overs) (YB Jaiswal 116*, RG Sharma 75, V Kohli 65*). PoM: YB Jaiswal. PoS: V Kohli. Rohit Sharma passed 20,000 runs in international cricket.
1st T20I At Cuttack, December 9, 2025 (floodlit). India won by 101 runs. India 175-6 (20 overs) (HH Pandya 59*; LT Ngidi 3-31); South Africa 74 (12.3 overs). PoM: HH Pandya. South Africa’s total was their lowest in T20Is (previously 87 against India at Rajkot in June 2022). Jasprit Bumrah took his 100th wicket in T20Is.
2nd T20I At New Chandigarh, December 11, 2025 (floodlit). South Africa won by 51 runs. South Africa 213-4 (20 overs) (Q de Kock 90, D Ferreira 30*); India 162 (19.1 overs) (NT Tilak Varma 62; OEG Baartman 4-24). PoM: Q de Kock. This was the first men’s international at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium.
3rd T20I At Dharamsala, December 14, 2025 (floodlit). India won by seven wickets. South Africa 117 (20 overs) (AK Markram 61); India 120-3 (15.5 overs) (A Sharma 35). PoM: Arshdeep Singh. Arshdeep Singh had figures of 24-14-13-2. Hardik Pandya took his 100th wicket in T20Is.
4th T20I At Lucknow, December 17, 2025 (floodlit). Abandoned. Fog prevented play.
5th T20I At Ahmedabad, December 19, 2025 (floodlit). India won by 30 runs. India 231-5 (20 overs) (SV Samson 37, A Sharma 34, NT Tilak Varma 73, HH Pandya 63); South Africa 201-8 (20 overs) (Q de Kock 65, DT Brevis 31; VV Chakravarthy 4-53). PoM: HH Pandya. PoS: VV Chakravarthy.
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