South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first in the third and final Test at the Green Park in Kanpur on Friday.
Graeme Smith called correctly to increase the woes of the Indian team, already down 0-1 in the series.
Earlier, captain Anil Kumble ended all speculation over his chances of playing by handing over the mantle to Mahendra Singh Dhoni. This ensured the Indian one-day captain his first opportunity to lead the Test squad.
While South Africa named an unchanged squad for the match, India made three changes, Piyush Chawla replacing Kumble, Ishant Sharma coming in for RP Singh and Yuvraj Singh providing another batting option at the expense of Irfan Pathan.
The teams:
India: M S Dhoni (captain), Wasim Jaffer, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, S Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma. 12th man: Mohammad Kaif.
South Africa: Graeme Smith (captain), Neil McKenzie, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, Ashwell Prince, Mark Boucher, Albie Morkel, Paul Harris, Makhaya Ntini, Dale Steyn. 12th man: JP Duminy.
