Nagpur: South Africa will draw confidence from their record on the subcontinent as they seek to replace India at the top of the world rankings in their two-Test series starting on Saturday.

India dislodged South Africa as the number one Test side in December after beating Sri Lanka 2-0 at home, and a series victory against the Proteas would consolidate their position.

South Africa can snatch back the coveted ranking only if they win the series 2-0. A 1-0 victory would leave both teams level on 123 points.

"India now hold the mantle of number one in the world, which is a credit to the way they have played," South Africa skipper Graeme Smith said ahead of the first Test in Nagpur.

Smith said it was tough to win a series in the subcontinent and success is "a real feather in your cap."

"But we won in Pakistan on our last tour there, we won in Bangladesh, we came very close to winning the series here in India. We were 1-0 going into the last Test, so I think generally we have played well," he said.

India are depleted by injuries to key players sustained during a 2-0 away victory over Bangladesh upsetting the team combination.

Rahul Dravid, a vital cog in the middle order, is recuperating after undergoing surgery for a fractured jaw while the aggressive Yuvraj Singh is nursing a sore left wrist.

Dhoni, India's first-choice wicketkeeper, has also been suffering from a troublesome back, forcing the national selectors to pick uncapped Wriddhiman Saha as his cover in the 15-man Test squad.

The Indian pace attack will be without the mercurial S Sreesanth who impressed against Sri Lanka, before being laid low by a hamstring injury in Bangladesh.

India's chairman of selectors Krish Srikkanth conceded Dravid's experience will be missed, but he was confident the hosts would do well in the series.

S Badrinath has been scoring runs in domestic cricket for years. Consistently. About 18 months ago, he pleaded for one chance to fail. Since then, fate played a new game with him. He kept getting agonisingly close to the Test team, but that was where it ended. Months later, he was in the squad for the Australia series, but it was M Vijay, his Tamil Nadu team-mate, who came out of nowhere and grabbed with both hands the opportunity at the top. So well did Vijay do that he became the No. 1 choice for any middle-order vacancy.

Morkel and Steyn. have got bowlers in African attack who can bowl at 140-plus consistently. They would be stupid to not use the short ball, and not try to intimidate the batsmen.

The second and final Test will be played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata from February 14.

Team news

India should bat M Vijay at No. 3 and Badrinath at No. 7. That splits up the two inexperienced batsmen. If Laxman isn't fit - he has been batting in the nets but with a strapped left thumb - Rohit could become the second debutant in the match.

Squad (likely): Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Murali Vijay, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman/Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni (capt/wk), S Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma.

South Africa's big question is which spinner to play. Paul Harris has been their lead Test spinner for a while, has bowled a lot of overs in the last year, should have been the lead spinner for this series too, but Manish Pandey and Abhishek Nayar took him for 71 runs in 12 wicketless overs in the tour game. .

Squad (likely): Graeme Smith (capt), Ashwell Prince, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Mark Boucher (wk), Paul Harris, Wayne Parnell, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel.

Pitch and conditions
The South Africans would be naïve if they expect the same amount of life in the pitch for the Test match as they move from the old VCA Ground to the new VCA Stadium. There were showers two days before the Test, the day before the match was mildly nippy and cloudy, and the forecast is for more of same.

Stats and trivia

• Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, at 2778 runs, are 233 short of becoming India's most prolific opening partnership. Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan hold the record.
• Since Yuvraj Singh in 2003, no Indian has made a debut in the middle order. Badri will be the first.
• Mark Boucher is nine dismissals short of becoming the first wicketkeeper to have assisted in 500 dismissals.

Match facts
February 6-10, 2010
Start time 0930 local (0400 GMT)