Victor Perez had a veteran – and seemingly forgotten – caddie on his bag as he won for the first time Sunday on the European Tour.

It was Rory McIlroy’s former looper, J.P. Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald took two years off after splitting with McIlroy following the 2017 Open Championship. Though he’s often shied away from media attention, Fitzgerald, in his first public comments on the split, told the Daily Mail that he hasn’t spoken to McIlroy since but that he harbors no ill feelings.

“At the end of the day, I went away to collect my thoughts and recharge my batteries,” Fitzgerald said, according to the report. “It was obvious I needed the break.”

When announcing the split in 2017, McIlroy said that his longtime caddie was "one of my best friends, closest friends, but sometimes to preserve a personal relationship you have to sacrifice a professional one." McIlroy has since hired one of his best friends, Harry Diamond.

Fitzgerald, meanwhile, briefly resurfaced this summer, hooking up with rising star Matthew Wolff at the beginning of his pro career. They lasted only two tournaments together.

“I suggested to him that he might want to try a different driver and 3-wood, and he disagreed,” Fitzgerald said, according to the report. “We just didn’t gel. It happens and I have no problems with Matt. He’s clearly going to be a great player.”

Wolff won in his next start with Steve Lohmeyer on the bag.

Fitzgerald and Perez were working just their fourth tournament together when Perez won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on Sunday.

Last week, Jack Nicklaus stopped at Muirfield Village, on his way to a hunting trip in Canada, to discuss with his design team some major changes to the course he built and has continued to tweak almost every year since its opening in 1974.

Discussed on the practice green that day and in a 4-hour ride around the course with his team was the dramatic lengthening of two par 5s (Nos. 11 and 15) and changing the par-5 fifth hole into a long par 4. They also discussed re-grassing the greens and installing a new underground drainage system that was dramatically needed in June when 3 inches of rain fell on the course as Patrick Cantlay won the Memorial Tournament by shooting 19 under.

The more Nicklaus thought about it at the time, the more committed he became. In his battle to roll back distance in the game, Nicklaus, at age 79, wanted one more crack to roll out a defense system to hold back the likes of Cameron Champ and his generation of players who carry the ball 300-plus yards.

Other than the pond put in front of the par-3 16^th green for the Presidents Cup, these will the most dramatic defensive changes of Jack’s trademark design career. He'll be doing just about everything other than a rerouting.

“I’m redoing the whole golf course,” Nicklaus told Golf Channel. “One hundred percent starting in July, I’m going to have one more bite at the apple.”

Nicklaus remembers the golden days at the U.S. Open when Joe Dey set up golf courses for the USGA and those days have inspired Nicklaus' design philosophies. He’ll turn 80 in January, so the time to act is now.

He met immediately after the Memorial with his team, and as Nicklaus said, “We were close to pulling the trigger and shutting it down then.”

All the changes will be done in two phases over the next two years. Phase I will begin this fall and be completed by May, in time for the 2020 Memorial, June 4-7. The course yardage will be increased to 7,462 yards.

Those changes will include new teeing grounds for the par-3 eighth, par-5 11^th and par-5 15^th. In relation to the additional yardage Nicklaus is introducing to the par 5s, he quickly mentions that most of the big hitters use 3-wood off those respective tees, and still have a chance to reach the green in two shots. 

The way Dey set up a golf course was the way Nicklaus learned. Jack will be hands on in this project, right down to the shaping of greens. Fairway widths will be examined. Instead of 9-irons and wedges, players will likely be using 6- and 7-irons again at the par-3 eighth.

Once the fifth hole is converted, par will be 71. That will be part of Phase II, which will begin upon the conclusion of next year’s Memorial and be completed before the 2021 edition.

Phase II will include the rebuilding of all 18 greens and new sub-surface heating and cooling equipment. Bunkers will be re-built and new fairway widths will be created. But, as Nicklaus says, they will still be “fairly generous off the tee.”

Instead of “doing little tricks over the years” to Muirfield Village, Jack is going all-in, one final time.

With one year to go until the 2020 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, U.S. captain Steve Stricker is eager for his 12-man roster to start taking shape. But he's not yet ready to count out a pair of players who have starred in matches for more than two decades.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have 20 Ryder Cup appearances between them, and they've been stalwarts in the American team room since the mid-1990s. Speaking at a press conference with Euro skipper Padraig Harrington to commemorate the 2020 matches being a year away, Stricker broke down the potential candidates for his team. Although Woods and Mickelson will be 44 and 50, respectively, at Whistling Straits, he still believes both men have a chance to tee it up in Wisconsin.

"I think they are both very capable of making the team," Stricker said. "They are both unbelievable in the team room. They've obviously played on a number of teams and have had so much experience. But to leave any of those guys out would be hard to do, just because of what they mean and what they have meant to these teams over the years."

Both received captain's picks last year from Jim Furyk but struggled in Paris, combining to go 0-6 with Woods 0-4 and Mickelson playing in the fewest matches of any American but losing both.

Woods' appearance as a player last year was his first Ryder Cup since 2012, and he currently sits fourth in the U.S. points race thanks in large part to his Masters win this spring. Mickelson hasn't missed a U.S. team since the 1993 Ryder Cup, but after a difficult summer and coming off a missed cut at the Safeway Open he's likely a longshot to earn one of Woods' four captain's picks for the upcoming Presidents Cup in December.

"Tiger will probably make his own team this year with the Presidents Cup. He's played well again," Stricker said. "It looks like Phil is building up his calves and getting thinner and hitting more bombs, so anything's possible with Phil. And Tiger, we know what kind of a player and competitor he is."

Part of the lore of the Ryder Cup is the notion of home course advantage, one that plays out in various other team sports. But Padraig Harrington hopes it's an aspect that gets eliminated down the line in the biennial matches.

The European skipper was a vice captain at Hazeltine in 2016 when the Americans feasted on a wide-open setup with easy pins, and he was in the team room again in 2018 when the Europeans returned the favor by growing the rough and tightening the targets at Le Golf National. The home team is allowed input on course setup decisions, meaning that Whistling Straits will be under the watchful eye of U.S. captain Steve Stricker for the 2020 matches, but Tuesday, Harrington floated the notion of using a more neutral approach in future years.

"I think there's a substantial difference, I would advocate even too much of a difference between home and away," Harrington said. "Clearly in Europe we get to set the golf course up, and we set it up in every way we can to suit our players. And in the States, we've seen that as well where the golf courses are set up to be most advantageous for the home team. I think, it's probably not going to happen in my lifetime, but 40-50 years down the road when the Ryder Cup is still going along it'd probably be best to have a neutral setup."

Whistling Straits has played host to three prior PGA Championships, all won by international players, and Harrington believes the links style of the Wisconsin layout could neutralize some of the potential home advantage for the Americans. While Stricker wasn't ready to tip his hand on setup at the press conference with both captains to commemorate the matches being a year away, he did take a couple subtle jabs at the (successful) tactics employed last year by European captain Thomas Bjorn.

"They know how we like to set up the golf courses, and we know how they like to set up the golf courses," Stricker said. "It's not going to be 8 on the Stimpmeter like it was in Paris. It's not going to be as high of rough as it was in Paris. But there's no real tricks, but it is a little bit more of a challenge here."

The U.S. Soccer Federation filed a brief opposing certification of the players' class action status late on Monday evening in the equal pay lawsuit involving members of the U.S. women's national team.

The players first filed their lawsuit on March 8 of this year, alleging that the USSF violated the pay discrimination provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by paying members of the U.S. men's national team more than those players on the U.S. women's national team. The suit is also alleging discriminatory working conditions in terms of travel and transportation, medical care, training and nutrition services, and quality of playing surface.

"The members of the MNT have received superior and discriminatory treatment across the board with respect to each of these uniformly applied working conditions," the players stated in a recent filing.

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On Sept. 9, the plaintiffs filed a motion requesting that the court certify the players as a class. The motion requested that the court appoint Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd and Becky Sauerbrunn as class representatives.

The class designation seeks to award the players injunctive relief for any player who is a team member on the day of final judgement or appeal, as well as back pay and punitive damages for any player on the team at any time between Feb. 4, 2014 to the present.

Certifying a class would allow the players to argue their case as a group and allow any players to opt in to the class. Those who don't opt in can still sue on their own.

The filing on behalf of the USSF, which was required by the court, contends that the class certification should be denied because from 2014 to 2019, the proposed class representatives -- Morgan, Rapinoe, Lloyd and Sauerbrunn -- were paid more than the highest earning MNT members "and therefore suffered no injury."

The filing provides charts comparing the earnings of the four proposed class representatives to the highest-earning USMNT member. For the five-year period in question, Lloyd, Rapinoe, Sauerbrunn and Morgan each earned over $1.5 million (including salaries for playing in the NWSL), while the highest earning men's player made $993,967. If the NWSL salaries are excluded, Lloyd, Rapinoe, Sauerbrunn and Morgan made just over $1.1 million.

"Plaintiffs also claim that they were subjected to discriminatory terms and conditions of employment under Title VII," the brief reads. "Noticeably absent from Plaintiffs' motion for class certification is any evidentiary proof showing that the proposed Class Representatives meet the Article III constitutional standing requirements.

"Because of the lack of proof showing the Class Representatives suffered any injury that could be remedied by this Court's adjudication of their Title VII claims, Plaintiffs' motion for class certification should be denied."

Molly Levinson, a spokesperson for the players, said when asked for a comment on the USSF's filing: "Pay should be based on performance, not gender. USSF tries to spin the undeniable fact that if men players won their games, they would be paid considerably more than the women are now. This is a tired argument from USSF that women players must work twice as hard and win every time men lose in order to try to be paid and have the same working conditions as the men. It runs counter to every American principle of equality, won't stop this case from going forward as a class action, and doesn't stand a chance in a trial."

It's worth noting that earnings by players from the USMNT were adversely affected during the period in question due to the team's failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. During 2018, the men's player highlighted in the USSF's data made $11,250. In 2014, the last time the men qualified for the World Cup, that player made $391,847.

The players on the two national teams are represented by separate players unions, and have markedly different pay structures in their respective collective bargaining agreements. The men operate on a purely pay-for-play basis in which they only get paid for games when they get placed on a game roster. The bulk of the income for players on the U.S. men's national team comes from their respective club teams. The women's CBA specifies that a core group of players are paid a base salary plus benefits, regardless of whether they play in games or not. They are also paid an additional salary for playing in the NWSL. The other "non-contracted" WNT players receive a per-game roster payment for each game they play, in lieu of a base salary amount.

In the Sept. 9 filing, the lawyers for the players asserted that: "For each category of WNT players-contracted and non-contracted players-the per-game compensation they receive, prior to any team performance bonuses, is far less than the per-game compensation, prior to performance bonuses, received by members of the MNT. In addition, the team performance bonuses paid to both contracted and non-contracted members of the WNT are uniform in amount and are less than the bonuses paid to members of the MNT for a comparable team performance. All of these base salary and bonus terms are set forth in the applicable CBAs and applied to all WNT and MNT members."

The USSF's lawyers countered: "The Class Representatives' mere allegations that the WNT and MNT players were paid differently are not the type of 'evidentiary proof' showing that they suffered a concrete injury-in-fact that is fairly traceable to U.S. Soccer," the USSF filing read.

If the court rules in favor of the USSF's filing, the players can still participate in the lawsuit on their own behalf. Regardless of how the court rules on the USSF filing, the case will continue.

Former general secretary of North American soccer's governing body CONCACAF Enrique Sanz has been banned from any football-related activity for life after being found guilty of bribery, FIFA announced on Tuesday.

Sanz was found guilty of negotiating bribes in competitions organised by FIFA, CONCACAF, the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) and the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) between 2012 and 2015.

He was also fined 100,000 Swiss francs ($100,200) by the world soccer governing body.

Sanz, a Colombian-American, joined CONCACAF in 2012 before being sacked in 2015 amid corruption allegations.

His predecessor Chuck Blazer, who died in 2017, was given a life ban by FIFA in 2015 after he was indicted and pleaded guilty to charges including accepting bribes and kickbacks while general secretary, having held the role from 1990 to 2011.

Former United States men's national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann called the CONCACAF Nations League "a waste of time" and said that if the U.S., Mexico and Costa Rica are ever going to get to the level of the top international sides, they need to find competition outside the region.

Speaking to ESPN's Herculez Gomez in the wake of ESPN securing the U.S. broadcast rights to the Bundesliga, Klinsmann was blunt in his assessment of the CONCACAF region.

"I think the biggest challenge for the United States, or even Mexico or Costa Rica, for the key countries in this region, is you don't really have the highest competition outside," Klinsmann said. "That means when you play just within your own system, you don't have the big matches against European countries or South American countries in order to grow your program, in order to grow your players.

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"So literally when you are kind of locked into CONCACAF and you don't play Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Chile every year, or you don't play Holland, Germany, England, Spain, Italy every year, you have no chance to grow.

"And that's what I always said, you have to leave this region here in order to make your program better, to improve your players. And this a big, big handicap for all the players and all the programs, if it's Mexico, Costa Rica or the United States."

The U.S. has played nine of the 10 CONMEBOL nations as well as England, France and Italy, since the start of 2018 -- the team also played 15 games away to European nations during Klinsmann's five years in charge -- but the advent of the CONCACAF Nations League limits the number of friendly games.

The two remaining international fixture windows for 2019 will be taken up by Nations League matches, with the U.S. in a group with Cuba and Canada. With the finals of the CONCACAF Nations League slated for next June, that only leaves the March 2020 window to schedule matches against teams from outside the region.

"It's a waste of time, I'm telling you," Klinsmann said of the new competition. "It's a waste of time because you that need [that competition] as a country. I mean talking about Mexico, everyone is hoping for the fifth game in the World Cup. You're not reaching that fifth game in the World Cup if you play the teams you are playing now in the Nations League in CONCACAF. You are not.

"Because you need to play Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Holland and England. That is your competition. And when you have an opening for a national team window and you can maybe make one or two friendly games, you need to play Argentina or Germany and not a CONCACAF team.

"So within that system that was created here, it's almost impossible for United States or Mexico to get better. And that is why Mexico just lost against Argentina 4-0."

There was always a question of how much countries like Mexico, Costa Rica and the U.S. would get out of the Nations League, given how it limits opportunities to play nations from other confederations.

But given the advent of a similar competition in Europe called the UEFA Nations League, as well as the fact that World Cup qualifying for South America will begin shortly after the 2018 World Cup concludes, those opportunities were already going to be limited.

"There will still be space for [intercontinental friendlies]," CONCACAF said in a statement accompanying the announcement of the competition in November 2017. "In broader terms, the League of Nations aligns CONCACAF with the general movement in the world of international football, away from low-stakes friendly matches."

Klinsmann added that another problem in the U.S. is that the federation prioritizes finances over results in terms of finding international opponents.

"There might not be the financial benefit to it when you travel to Italy or to Holland or to Germany or to England, than playing a home game in the United States with the, I don't know, whatever revenues are coming in," he said. "So at the end of the day it is very, very difficult to make your players better when they don't have the highest competition possible."

When approached by ESPN, U.S. Soccer declined to comment.

In the interim, the priority for U.S. players is to seek out the high-level club opportunities, in particular playing for European teams.

"The players need to play in the best leagues in the world, which are in Europe, as many as possible," Klinsmann said. "Which we are very proud of, a lot of them now playing in the Bundesliga, or Christian Pulisic playing in the Premier League. This is super exciting.

"And the same with the Mexican best players, they play in Europe, it doesn't matter where they play. [Hirving] Lozano plays in Napoli and [Javier Hernandez] plays [with Sevilla], and so on. So the challenge for a coach is always, 'How do I get my players to play at the highest level possible for them?' And if not, then you know you always have these setbacks."

Klinsmann also insisted that he thinks MLS benefits American players, just that some things can be improved.

"I think MLS is a wonderful place, to come through, to fight through," he said. "I think that the coaches here that really try to give the younger players the chance, I see a lot of young players now out there. And then it's down to the players as well.

"So how far do I want to take it now from here? I think with the growing MLS, every year the quality is improving. Every year they are trying to compete more, especially with Liga MX, which is awesome to do. I think the developmental path is there. But they have got to give a clear message to the players as well that it is down to them to become more consistent."

Former U.S. men's national team boss Jurgen Klinsmann said there is "an exciting group of players emerging" for the U.S., and that he hopes manager Gregg Berhalter is given a chance to grow the program.

Speaking to ESPN's Herculez Gomez in the wake of ESPN securing the U.S. broadcast rights to the Bundesliga, Klinsmann stated that he likes what he sees from the current crop of players, several of whom are playing in Europe.

"You know you look at Tyler Adams, you look at obviously Christian Pulisic," Klinsmann said. "You have several players, Josh Sargent, to come out of the Tab Ramos U-20 group over the last few years, who has done tremendously well with the U-20s. So when you have a U-20 national team that now three times went to the final eight of a World Cup, that means that you have quality, you have quality young players.

"So now you have got to feed those young players into the next stage of their careers. So now you have a midfield with Weston McKennie, with Adams, with Pulisic, with Sargent up front. They promise a lot of quality. Younger players coming through and they are trying their best in whatever leagues they are playing. So there is some potential there. Now in order to prepare that group of players then, for a next World Cup, this is a bigger-picture discussion that you need to have because they need the best competition available."

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As for Berhalter, Klinsmann said that his impression of the U.S. manager is "very positive," although he needs time to build the current side.

"You wish that he is given a chance to make the players grow," Klinsmann said about Berhalter. "I think he saw things from different perspectives. He played in Europe as well. So he knows a little bit about the European approach to things. He knows obviously how things work in the U.S. He needs time to bring in his ideas and make things grow. At the end of the day, you need the competition and the competition is CONCACAF. So it's a big task for Gregg but I'm positive that he is doing well."

Klinsmann also touched on the failed effort to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, which started under his watch. Overall, Klinsmann called his five-year tenure with the U.S. "an awesome time" and that he was "honored" to lead the U.S. program. But he was fired two games into the final round Hexagonal, and replaced by Bruce Arena, after which the Americans ultimately fell short in their bid to make it to Russia.

"Well what went wrong, I was not in charge anymore, so obviously when you don't qualify for a World Cup a lot of things went wrong," he said.

He added: "You were not prepared for finishing things off. You were qualified 99 percent, so whatever reason it went wrong there with the entire environment, it went wrong and nobody would expect that the other two games go in the same direction."

Klinsmann said that he was aware that then-United States Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati was maneuvering to replace him with Arena, as Arena claimed in a book. The change was delayed when then USSF Secretary General Dan Flynn had to undergo a heart transplant, but eventually took place.

"I knew that, yeah," he said. "It doesn't really matter who at the end of the day leads the program. I think the most important thing is whatever job you are given, you have to get the job done. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. They didn't qualify for the World Cup in Russia, which is very, very sad. Obviously.

"I think the bigger picture in this whole thing is how can you improve the region by itself. Mexico, Costa Rica, the United States: How could they end up possibly in a final four in a World Cup? Because that should be the goal. I mean especially for Mexico, which is completely soccer crazy driven. When it just stays within that region, you aren't going to reach those goals."

On the flight back to Paris from Bordeaux on Saturday evening, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe sat next to each other. While some on board were sleeping (or trying to), watching some shows on Netflix or playing the new Mario Kart game on their phones, the two best friends were messing around, playing music and dancing. You could almost hear them laughing all the way back to the capital.

What's important here isn't that Neymar was on the plane with Mbappe, but that the Brazilian's happy and enjoying life again as a Paris Saint-Germain player.

"It is like a new lease of life," a source close to the team told ESPN. "It feels like he is a different person at times. He is happy, relaxed, interacting a lot with everyone. He wants to prove what a world-class player he is so he gets forgiven by the fans. This season is an important one for him and for the club and he knows that. He wants it to be a really successful one."

Of course, the record shows that Neymar wanted to leave PSG. It was the transfer saga of the summer, but one that ultimately ended in disappointment for everyone: the player, his old club Barcelona and a PSG side that was perhaps willing to cut their losses and move on. However, once Neymar knew he was staying at the Parc des Princes, his mindset changed. It was time to embrace both the club and the fans. He was not going to sulk, but instead look to make the best of a bad situation. But will the fans forgive him?

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Before rejoining the PSG squad for the Sept. 14 game against Strasbourg, Neymar addressed his teammates: "I am going to be back to my best and take this team to the next level." Since then, PSG have won 1-0 three times in their last four Ligue 1 matches, with Neymar netting all three of those match-winning goals, including two world-class efforts vs. Strasbourg and at Lyon. In Bordeaux on Saturday, the thousand Paris ultras who travelled south didn't boo him -- they did after his game-winning effort vs. Strasbourg -- but cheered him on.

It feels very much like the start of the Neymar 2.0 era in Paris. The Brazilian won't drastically change his way of playing or his lifestyle. That's not the point anyway, but he has clearly decided to embrace the club, its culture, its philosophy and its fans more than ever.

With manager Thomas Tuchel, Neymar's relationship has always been great, perhaps too great at times. The German manager allowed his No. 10 too much freedom last season, but Tuchel will continue to build a lot of his season around Neymar. Also, the arrival of Leonardo as a sporting director, possessing much more authority and power than his predecessor, Antero Henrique, also meant that Neymar's attitude had to change from the last two seasons.

Leonardo was firm with him from Day 1. He reminded Neymar of what he expected from him: leadership by example on and off the pitch, responsibility and respect of the club and the fans. Neymar, and his father, liked Leonardo's honesty. After all, Leonardo knows how important the former Barcelona player is to the team. His stats are incredible so far in 2019-20, but this time, the club is hoping Neymar won't get injured and miss the last four months of the season, particularly when they might need him most in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

The Neymar/Mbappe axis will be at the heart of everything good that this PSG squad will do this season. As Tuchel said after the win in Bordeaux, "Life is easier when you have this kind of quality."

On Saturday evening, once the PSG plane landed in Paris, Mbappe and Neymar went home before meeting again, this time to attend the birthday party of their friend, the model Cindy Bruna, at the luxurious Lutetia Hotel in the Saint Germain des Près area of the capital. Between them, it is a proper bromance. They make each other happy.

"There are no filters between us. That's the charm of our relationship, which was always based on honesty and admiration," Mbappe said on Saturday. They have the whole season to make sure that the "Ky-Ky and Ney" duo takes PSG as far as possible. But there's no telling how long it might take Neymar to repair things with the fans. A few more big goals can't hurt.

Big picture

Remember the first Test between these sides four years ago? South Africa had won the T20I series, Kagiso Rabada had outdone MS Dhoni in an ODI, South Africa had mauled 438 in another, and India took the ultimate gamble going into the Tests. Coach Ravi Shastri admitted later said those were desperate times, and they asked for extreme pitches to restore the confidence of a young team that was being outmuscled at home. The context, the anticipation, India's coach playing mind games with an announcement that he didn't mind playing four spinners, South Africa starting off with momentum and confidence, it all made up for a great build-up.

Remember the return tour? South Africa vowing revenge, asking for extreme pitches of their own, India fighting fire with fire, South Africa captain berating his own groundsmen for not being co-operative enough until he got them to co-operate so much that they nearly got the Wanderers banned.

Now? Now the talk is about how South Africa have nothing to lose and all to gain. None of that needle or anticipation exists now as South Africa commence their sixth Test series in India. For a long time, South Africa were the gold standard for touring sides, but now the gulf between the two sides in these conditions is so huge that the absence of the best all-format bowler in the world is not even a big headline.

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India have since gone on to become competitive in all conditions, and efficient and intimidating at home. South Africa have lost many of the players that made them the threat they were at that time. Since November 2015, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have taken 256 wickets between them at home at an average of 20.78. Since India lost the home series to England in 2012-13, after which Ashwin-Jadeja became a duo, India have lost just one home Test out of 29.

South Africa, a team in turmoil, a team that has only five survivors from that last tour when they used to be competitive away from home, are not being reticent but are merely stating facts when they say they have nothing to lose. Their one improvement over the last squad is Keshav Maharaj, easily a much better Test spinner than the ones that toured the last time. But he won't be able to pull off miracles on his own. The South Africans will all have to play out of their skins if they are to win even one Test.

Form guide

India WWDWL (last five Tests, most recent first)
South Africa LLWWW

In the spotlight

R Ashwin is still an India player. You could be forgiven for thinking he wasn't: he last played for India last December. Out of limited-overs cricket, he lost his No. 1 spinner title to Jadeja in the West Indies. He will want to have a thing or two to say about it when he finally gets the SG ball in his hand.

It is a matter of mild surprise that Faf du Plessis is still here, and that too as a captain. South Africa's World Cup exit had strong end-of-era feels to it, which the coming months showed was not unfounded. Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn have retired, AB de Villiers remains retired, coaches are gone, politics is still a big factor. As a captain, du Plessis speaks at press conferences more honestly and openly than many others, and his resignation seemed apparent during the World Cup. It wouldn't have surprised anyone if a worn-down captain had joined the exodus. Instead, he has chosen the cauldron where he will have to lead a young batting line-up. Over to you, Faf. Show us you've still got it.

Team news

Apart from Ashwin, making a comeback after 22 months of international absence is wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha. That means Rishabh Pant is out after having scored the first centuries for an India wicketkeeper in England and Australia. The argument is that Saha is more accomplished technically and that will be much more important when it turns at home. Also, Saha has a home Man-of-the-Match award for his batting, so he is no mug on that front either.

Rohit Sharma will begin another attempt at resurrecting a stalled Test career as he converts to an opener.

India 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Hanuma Vihari, 7 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Ravindra Jadeja, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Mohammed Shami

Faf du Plessis said South Africa were thinking of playing five bowlers, which might send Quinton de Kock up to No. 6, and Theunis de Bruyn is likely to move up to No. 3.

South Africa (probable XI) 1 Aiden Markram, 2 Dean Elgar, 3 Theunis de Bruyn, 4 Faf du Plessis (capt), 5 Temba Bavuma, 6 Quinton de Kock (wk), 7 Vernon Philander, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Lungi Ngidi/Anrich Nortje/Senuran Muthusamy, 11 Dane Piedt

Pitch and conditions

Cricket, say hello to climate change. Well past the monsoon season, it is still raining in many parts of India, devastatingly so, and the east coast is particularly unpredictable. There is forecast for some interruption on each of the days, and the pitch preparation is bound to be affected as well. It won't, however, turn into the seaming monster that Eden Gardens became when it rained a lot in the lead-up to the Test against Sri Lanka two years ago. Virat Kohli said it was a typical Vizag pitch, which means slow turn, which South Africa won't like. However, if there is excessive moisture retained, there could be some vicious turn at the start of the Test as evidenced in Bangalore against Australia in 2016-17.

Stats and trivia

• Jadeja is two away from becoming the tenth Indian to take 200 Test wickets. If he does it in this, his 44th, Test, Jadeja will be the second-fastest Indian to mark, behind Ashwin's 37 and ahead of Harbhajan Singh's 46.

• Maharaj needs six more to become the 17th South Africa bowler to take 100 Test wickets.

Quotes

"The credit goes to the team. We laid down a vision in 2015 that we were going to be flexible. We were going to choose sides according to the conditions because we wanted results, we wanted to be successful, we wanted to be at the top of the world. If the team hadn't bought into it, it can become difficult to play with the intent we have played with."
Virat Kohli is happy with where the team is headed since he took over full time in 2015

"It's really exciting. It's something fresh, it's something new. We have played a lot of Test cricket, but this is the first of its kind. Playing India in any conditions is tough, playing them at home is tougher, so it is a nice challenge, but I am more excited about the World Test Championship. Right now we don't know if it is a good or a bad system. It is something you have to go through yourself."
Faf du Plessis loves the extra context