Team India Test captain Virat Kohli achieved a big milestone during the first Test match against South Africa on Sunday at SuperSport Park, Centurion. At the flip of coin, Kohli made the right call as he won the toss and elected to bat first under overcast conditions against a quality South Africa pace attack.
With another toss win, Kohli surpassed former skipper Mohammad Azharuddin’s tally to become the Indian skipper with the most toss wins in Test cricket. As captain, Kohli has now won 30 tosses for India in 68 Tests and ahead of the Boxing Day clash, he led his team to victory 23 times after winning the toss. Azharuddin won the toss 29 times in 47 Tests as India captain.
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Kohli seeking a historic away Test series win in South Africa said past history on the ground persuaded him to bat.
“The wicket looks nice. There is a lot of grass on it but historically it tends to get faster from day two onwards,” said Kohli at the toss
Kohli said he traced India’s recent success in away series to their win in the third Test in Johannesburg four seasons ago after they had lost the first two matches.
“That gave us a lot of confidence,” he said.
But he admitted: “this is a very challenging place to play cricket in. We have to be at our absolute best.”
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Talking about the composition of the playing eleven, Kohli said, “We are playing with Siraj, Shami and Bumrah, all-rounder is Shardul and spinner is Ashwin.”
Meanwhile, openers Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul gave India a solid start after skipper Kohli won the toss. The talented opening duo batted with a lot of grit and determination to put India on top in the first session. At lunch, India were 83/0 with Mayank (46) and Rahul (29) in the middle.
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