India vs South Africa Test Head-to-Head: Record & Results
Written and checked by CricketTakenPublished Cricket in India16 min read
South Africa lead India 20-16 in Test cricket, with ten draws from forty-six matches played between November 1992 and November 2025. The two figures that give the fixture its shape are not in that line, though. The first is that India have never won a Test series in South Africa in nine attempts across thirty-three years. The second is that in November 2025 South Africa won a series in India for the first time in twenty-five years, and did it 2-0, finishing with a 408-run victory at Guwahati that is the heaviest defeat India have suffered in Test cricket.
Everything else about the record follows from the split by country. In India the fixture reads 11-7 to India with three draws; in South Africa it reads 13-5 to South Africa with seven. Neither side has ever hosted the other in a third country, so there is no neutral column at all — one of the few long Test rivalries with none.
India's best results in South Africa are two drawn series, 1-1 in 2010-11 and 1-1 in 2023-24. The second of those included the Cape Town win of January 2024, completed inside two days, which is the shortest Test either side has won in the fixture.
Forty-six Tests, no series win in South Africa
To the second Test at Guwahati, 22-26 November 2025.
| Where played | Tests | India won | South Africa won | Drawn | Span |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In India | 21 | 11 | 7 | 3 | 1996-2025 |
| In South Africa | 25 | 5 | 13 | 7 | 1992-2024 |
| All Tests | 46 | 16 | 20 | 10 | 1992-2025 |
The fixture began in South Africa, not India. The Durban Test that started on 13 November 1992 was South Africa's first after readmission, and India played the first four Tests of the rivalry on that tour. The first Test between the two in India came four years later, at Ahmedabad in November 1996.
India's five wins in South Africa are spread very thinly: Johannesburg in December 2006, Durban in December 2010, Johannesburg again in January 2018, Centurion in December 2021 and Cape Town in January 2024. Four grounds, five matches, eighteen years, and none of them in a series India went on to win.
Decade by decade
| Decade | Tests | India won | South Africa won | Drawn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 10 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| 2000s | 12 | 3 | 6 | 3 |
| 2010s | 17 | 9 | 5 | 3 |
| 2020s (to Nov 2025) | 7 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
The 2010s are India's decade and they are why the overall gap is only four. Nine wins from seventeen, including three at home in the 2015-16 Freedom Trophy and three more in the 2019-20 whitewash, plus two of the five away wins.
The 2020s row is the one that has changed the fixture's direction. Seven Tests, no draws, and South Africa five of the seven — two in South Africa in the 2021-22 series after India had won at Centurion, one at Centurion in December 2023, and both matches of the 2025-26 series in India. Nothing in the fixture's history has been as one-sided in as short a run.
Every series since 1992
| Season | Host | Tests | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992-93 | South Africa | 4 | South Africa won 1-0 |
| 1996-97 | India | 3 | India won 2-1 |
| 1996-97 | South Africa | 3 | South Africa won 2-0 |
| 1999-2000 | India | 2 | South Africa won 2-0 |
| 2001-02 | South Africa | 2 | South Africa won 1-0 |
| 2004-05 | India | 2 | India won 1-0 |
| 2006-07 | South Africa | 3 | South Africa won 2-1 |
| 2007-08 | India | 3 | Drawn 1-1 |
| 2009-10 | India | 2 | Drawn 1-1 |
| 2010-11 | South Africa | 3 | Drawn 1-1 |
| 2013-14 | South Africa | 2 | South Africa won 1-0 |
| 2015-16 | India | 4 | India won 3-0 |
| 2017-18 | South Africa | 3 | South Africa won 2-1 |
| 2019-20 | India | 3 | India won 3-0 |
| 2021-22 | South Africa | 3 | South Africa won 2-1 |
| 2023-24 | South Africa | 2 | Drawn 1-1 |
| 2025-26 | India | 2 | South Africa won 2-0 |
Seventeen series: India have won four, South Africa nine, four have been drawn. All four Indian series wins were at home, and three came in a fifteen-year stretch — 2004-05, 2015-16 and 2019-20 — with the 1996-97 home rubber the outlier from the fixture's first decade.
The two-nil in India in November 2025 is the second series South Africa have won on Indian soil, after the 2-0 of February and March 2000. It has become the fixture's reference point in the same way the 3-0 whitewashes of 2015-16 and 2019-20 had been for the decade before it. The bilateral trophy the two sides play for, the Freedom Trophy, was instituted for the 2015-16 series to mark twenty-five years since Nelson Mandela's release from prison. India's Test record more widely is set out on the India Test cricket history page, and the men who led through these tours on the Test captains history page.
Guwahati 2025, and the biggest margins
| Margin | Winner | Ground | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 408 runs | South Africa | Guwahati | 22 Nov 2025 |
| 337 runs | India | Delhi | 3 Dec 2015 |
| 329 runs | South Africa | Eden Gardens | 27 Nov 1996 |
| 328 runs | South Africa | Durban | 26 Dec 1996 |
| 282 runs | South Africa | Cape Town | 2 Jan 1997 |
| Inns & 202 runs | India | Ranchi | 19 Oct 2019 |
| 203 runs | India | Visakhapatnam | 2 Oct 2019 |
| 174 runs | South Africa | Durban | 26 Dec 2006 |
| Inns & 137 runs | India | Pune | 10 Oct 2019 |
| 135 runs | South Africa | Johannesburg | 13 Jan 2018 |
The Guwahati Test of November 2025 was the first ever played at the Barsapara ground and it produced the fixture's widest margin and India's heaviest Test defeat in any fixture. South Africa made 489 and 260 for 5 declared; India replied with 201 and 140, Marco Jansen and Simon Harmer taking the wickets. Barsapara's fuller record is on its Guwahati records page.
Three of South Africa's four biggest wins came inside six weeks of each other in the winter of 1996-97, across the back-to-back home and away series: 329 at Kolkata, then 328 at Durban and 282 at Cape Town on the return tour. India's biggest is the 337 at Delhi in December 2015, in the Test that sealed the Freedom Trophy 3-0.
The 600s and the 66
India's highest totals in the fixture.
| Total | Overs | Result | Ground | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 643/6d | 153.0 | won | Eden Gardens | 14 Feb 2010 |
| 627 | 155.1 | drawn | Chennai | 26 Mar 2008 |
| 601/5d | 156.3 | won | Pune | 10 Oct 2019 |
| 502/7d | 136.0 | won | Visakhapatnam | 2 Oct 2019 |
| 497/9d | 116.3 | won | Ranchi | 19 Oct 2019 |
South Africa's highest totals.
| Total | Overs | Result | Ground | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 620/4d | 130.1 | won | Centurion | 16 Dec 2010 |
| 563 | 143.0 | won | Bloemfontein | 3 Nov 2001 |
| 558/6d | 176.0 | won | Nagpur | 6 Feb 2010 |
| 540 | 152.5 | drawn | Chennai | 26 Mar 2008 |
| 529/7d | 162.5 | won | Cape Town | 2 Jan 1997 |
The lowest completed innings totals.
| Total | Team | Overs | Ground | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | South Africa | 23.2 | Cape Town | 3 Jan 2024 |
| 66 | India | 34.1 | Durban | 26 Dec 1996 |
| 76 | India | 20.0 | Ahmedabad | 3 Apr 2008 |
| 79 | South Africa | 33.1 | Nagpur | 25 Nov 2015 |
| 84 | South Africa | 25.1 | Johannesburg | 15 Dec 2006 |
| 93 | India | 35.0 | Eden Gardens | 14 Nov 2025 |
| 105 | South Africa | 38.5 | Ahmedabad | 20 Nov 1996 |
| 109 | South Africa | 39.5 | Mohali | 5 Nov 2015 |
The 2009-10 series in India is the only one in the fixture in which each side made a total above 550 — South Africa's 558 for 6 at Nagpur, India's 643 for 6 at Kolkata — and the two matches finished with an innings win each. Chennai in March 2008 produced 627 and 540 in the same Test and still ended drawn.
At the other end the shortest of them all was Cape Town in January 2024: South Africa 55 in 23.2 overs, India 153, South Africa 176, India 80 for 3, all inside two days. India's 66 at Durban in December 1996 remains their lowest against South Africa, and the 93 at Kolkata in November 2025 was made chasing 124 to win. Where these figures sit among India's own extremes is on the highest Test team totals and lowest Test team totals pages.
Batting: Tendulkar and Kallis, seven runs apart
India's leading run scorers against South Africa in Tests.
| Batter | Span | Mat | Runs | HS | Ave | 100s | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sachin Tendulkar | 1992-2011 | 25 | 1,741 | 169 | 42.46 | 7 | 5 |
| Virat Kohli | 2013-2024 | 16 | 1,408 | 254* | 54.15 | 3 | 5 |
| Virender Sehwag | 2001-2011 | 15 | 1,306 | 319 | 50.23 | 5 | 2 |
| Rahul Dravid | 1996-2011 | 21 | 1,252 | 148 | 33.83 | 2 | 5 |
| VVS Laxman | 1996-2011 | 19 | 976 | 143* | 37.53 | 1 | 6 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 1996-2008 | 17 | 947 | 87 | 33.82 | 0 | 7 |
| Ajinkya Rahane | 2013-2022 | 13 | 884 | 127 | 46.52 | 3 | 4 |
| Cheteshwar Pujara | 2010-2022 | 17 | 882 | 153 | 30.41 | 1 | 6 |
South Africa's leading run scorers against India.
| Batter | Span | Mat | Runs | HS | Ave | 100s | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacques Kallis | 2000-2013 | 18 | 1,734 | 201* | 69.36 | 7 | 5 |
| Hashim Amla | 2004-2018 | 21 | 1,528 | 253* | 43.65 | 5 | 7 |
| AB de Villiers | 2006-2018 | 20 | 1,334 | 217* | 39.23 | 3 | 6 |
| Dean Elgar | 2015-2024 | 15 | 1,012 | 185 | 40.48 | 2 | 4 |
| Graeme Smith | 2004-2013 | 15 | 987 | 94 | 37.96 | 0 | 8 |
| Gary Kirsten | 1996-2001 | 10 | 720 | 133 | 40.00 | 3 | 3 |
| Andrew Hudson | 1992-1997 | 10 | 690 | 146 | 36.31 | 1 | 6 |
| Daryll Cullinan | 1993-2000 | 8 | 688 | 153* | 52.92 | 2 | 3 |
The two leading aggregates in the fixture are seven runs apart and were compiled in very different ways. Sachin Tendulkar's 1,741 came from twenty-five Tests at 42.46; Jacques Kallis's 1,734 came from eighteen at 69.36, which is the highest average of anyone with a thousand runs in the fixture by more than fifteen. Both made seven centuries against the other side.
Virender Sehwag's 319 at Chennai in March 2008 is the highest individual score the fixture has produced, made off 304 balls with forty-two fours. Virat Kohli's 254 not out at Pune in October 2019 and Hashim Amla's 253 not out at Nagpur in February 2010 are the next two. Graeme Smith's row is worth a second look: 987 runs in fifteen Tests with eight fifties and no century, the largest aggregate in the fixture without a hundred in it. Mayank Agarwal's 215 at Visakhapatnam and Rohit Sharma's 212 at Ranchi came in the same three-Test series in October 2019.
Bowling: Kumble's 84, Steyn's 65, Harmer's 27
India's leading wicket takers against South Africa in Tests.
| Bowler | Span | Mat | Wkts | Best | Ave | Econ | 5w |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anil Kumble | 1992-2008 | 21 | 84 | 6/53 | 31.79 | 2.34 | 3 |
| Javagal Srinath | 1992-2001 | 13 | 64 | 6/21 | 24.48 | 2.83 | 4 |
| Harbhajan Singh | 2001-2011 | 11 | 60 | 7/87 | 28.40 | 2.86 | 4 |
| Ravichandran Ashwin | 2013-2023 | 14 | 57 | 7/66 | 22.28 | 2.51 | 5 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | 2013-2025 | 11 | 52 | 6/138 | 19.63 | 2.33 | 3 |
| Mohammed Shami | 2013-2022 | 11 | 48 | 5/28 | 20.93 | 2.99 | 3 |
| Jasprit Bumrah | 2018-2025 | 10 | 46 | 6/61 | 20.36 | 2.86 | 4 |
| Zaheer Khan | 2001-2013 | 12 | 40 | 4/62 | 36.42 | 3.29 | 0 |
South Africa's leading wicket takers against India.
| Bowler | Span | Mat | Wkts | Best | Ave | Econ | 5w |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dale Steyn | 2006-2018 | 14 | 65 | 7/51 | 21.53 | 3.08 | 5 |
| Morne Morkel | 2006-2018 | 17 | 58 | 5/20 | 26.41 | 2.94 | 1 |
| Allan Donald | 1992-2000 | 11 | 57 | 7/84 | 17.31 | 2.37 | 3 |
| Kagiso Rabada | 2015-2024 | 14 | 55 | 5/59 | 22.60 | 3.01 | 1 |
| Shaun Pollock | 1996-2007 | 12 | 52 | 6/56 | 19.63 | 2.26 | 2 |
| Marco Jansen | 2021-2025 | 7 | 36 | 6/48 | 15.72 | 2.91 | 1 |
| Makhaya Ntini | 2001-2008 | 10 | 36 | 5/48 | 28.97 | 3.34 | 1 |
| Simon Harmer | 2015-2025 | 4 | 27 | 6/37 | 15.03 | 2.49 | 1 |
Anil Kumble's eighty-four is the leading tally in the fixture and it took him twenty-one Tests, at 31.79, in a career that spanned both countries and sixteen years of it. Ravindra Jadeja's 19.63 and Ravichandran Ashwin's 22.28 are the best Indian averages among the front-line spinners, and Ashwin's five five-wicket hauls and match figures of 12 for 98 are the only ten-wicket haul by an Indian in the fixture. The context of how those spinners were used at home is on the spin bowling tradition page.
Allan Donald's 57 wickets at 17.31 is the best average of anyone with fifty in the fixture, and he and Dale Steyn are the only South Africans to take ten in a match against India, Donald with 12 for 139 and Steyn with 10 for 108. The two rows that shape the current record are lower down: Marco Jansen's 36 at 15.72 from seven Tests and Simon Harmer's 27 at 15.03 from four, both accumulated largely in the 2021-22 and 2025-26 series. Harmer has the fewest matches of anyone on either list and the best average of anyone with twenty-five wickets in the fixture.
The last ten Tests
Most recent first.
| Date | Ground | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 22 Nov 2025 | Guwahati | South Africa won by 408 runs |
| 14 Nov 2025 | Eden Gardens | South Africa won by 30 runs |
| 3 Jan 2024 | Cape Town | India won by 7 wickets |
| 26 Dec 2023 | Centurion | South Africa won by an innings and 32 runs |
| 11 Jan 2022 | Cape Town | South Africa won by 7 wickets |
| 3 Jan 2022 | Johannesburg | South Africa won by 7 wickets |
| 26 Dec 2021 | Centurion | India won by 113 runs |
| 19 Oct 2019 | Ranchi | India won by an innings and 202 runs |
| 10 Oct 2019 | Pune | India won by an innings and 137 runs |
| 2 Oct 2019 | Visakhapatnam | India won by 203 runs |
Five each, and not a draw among them. The three Indian wins of October 2019 are the last whitewash India managed here, and South Africa's four wins since December 2023 include the first series they have won in India this century.
What the record says now
- South Africa lead 20-16, but the two records are geographic mirror images: India 11-7 at home, South Africa 13-5 at home, and no fixture at all on neutral ground.
- India have never won a Test series in South Africa. Nine tours, two drawn rubbers, seven lost, and only five wins from twenty-five Tests there.
- South Africa have now won two series in India, in 1999-2000 and 2025-26, and both were 2-0. Outside those four Tests, India have lost only three of their other seventeen home matches in the fixture.
- The 2020s are the most decisive stretch in the fixture's history: seven Tests, five to South Africa, no draws. The 408-run margin at Guwahati is the largest either side has recorded and India's heaviest Test defeat.
- Draws have almost vanished. Ten of the forty-six matches were drawn, seven of them before 2011 and none since 2015.
- The individual extremes belong to India: Sehwag's 319, the 643 for 6 at Kolkata, Ashwin's 12 for 98. The best rates belong to South Africa: Kallis at 69.36 with the bat, Donald at 17.31 and Harmer at 15.03 with the ball.
The fifty-over record between the two sides is on the India versus South Africa ODI head-to-head, and the Twenty20 record on the India versus South Africa T20I head-to-head. The rest of the Indian game is indexed from cricket in India.
Sources and method
Every figure on this page was read from ESPNcricinfo's Statsguru, filtered to men's Test matches between India and South Africa, and checked on 20 August 2026. The most recent Test at that date was the second match of the 2025-26 series at Guwahati, which finished on 26 November 2025.
The venue split uses Statsguru's home and away classification. Its two rows sum to 46 Tests, 16 India wins, 20 South Africa wins and 10 draws, matching the overall line; the decade table was built by grouping the full match-results list by year of start and reconciles with the same totals. There is no neutral row because the two sides have never met at a Test venue outside India or South Africa.
The series table was assembled from the match-by-match result list rather than from a published series summary. Statsguru lists the World Test Championship separately from the bilateral Freedom Trophy for the same matches, so those duplicate entries were collapsed into one row per rubber, which is why seventeen series account for all forty-six Tests.
The lowest-totals table is restricted to completed innings in which a side lost all ten wickets, so declared and unfinished innings below those figures are excluded. Batting and bowling tables are ordered by aggregate runs and wickets. Where the prose compares averages it names the sample floor being used — a thousand runs for batters, twenty-five or fifty wickets for bowlers — because in a forty-six-Test fixture a rate drawn from four matches and one drawn from twenty-one are not the same measurement. None of these totals are computed from ball-by-ball records; each is current to the date above and will move with the next series.