Team India might have begun their tour of South Africa on a losing note but there are few positives that have emerged from their performance in Cape Town. Mohinder Amarnath, whose all-round performances were vital in securing India their maiden World Cup title in 1983, has picked Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya among future Test stars in the making. Hardik Pandya's bravely innings of 93 runs off 93 balls in the first innings helped India recover from the depths of 92/7 in reply to South Africa's 286 in the first innings on Day 2. It was solely due to his effort that India limited the hosts' lead to 77 runs.

Amarnath was impressed with his approach and feels that his attacking instincts should be fully exploited by prompting him up the batting order and thus pushing the opposition on the backfoot. Bumrah, who made his Test debut in the series opener, impressed with his control and variations. The highlight of his bowling was the dismissal of Faf du Plessis in the second innings with a rising delivery that left the South Africa captain dazzled. He returned match figures of 4/112. "Bumrah's inclusion in this format is a good sign for India," Amarnath, who scored 4378 runs in 69 Tests for India, wrote. "Now they have a lot of variation as far as bowling is concerned whenever the team plays overseas."