Virat Kohli has been ruled out of the 2nd Test match against South Africa at Wanderers, Johannesburg as his deputy KL Rahul to captain India in their first match of 2022. Kohli sustained an upper back spasm ahead of the crucial clash and Rahul got a chance to lead the Indian team for the first time.
Rahul on his maiden Test as captain won the toss and elected to bat against the Proteas as India will look to seal the series in Johannesburg where they have not lost any Tests. The middle-order batter Hanuma Vihari finally got a chance in the playing XI as he replaced skipper Virat Kohli, while Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane retained their place.
On the bouncy track of Wanderers, India decided to play with the same bowling combination from the Centurion Test as Shardul Thakur, Ravichandran Ashwin got another chance.
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Rahul informed that the physios are working with Kohli and he is hopeful that the 33-year-old will return to Cape Town for the third Test match.
“Unfortunately Virat has had an upper back spasm, the physios are working on him and hopefully he’ll recover for the next Test. It is every Indian player’s dream to captain his country. Really honoured and looking forward to this challenge. We have had a few good wins here and hopefully, we’ll look to continue that. Hanuma Vihari comes in place of Virat. Just the one change. It was a good Test at Centurion overall. We really performed well as a team and are really excited about this match,” Rahul said at the toss.
Meanwhile, South Africa also made a couple of changes in the XI as Kyle Verryenne replaced Quinton de Kock who announced his retirement from Test cricket after Centurion Test, while Duanne Olivier came in for Wiaan Mulder.
“It doesn’t really bother me (On Kohli missing out), we have got a Test match to play. Two changes: Kyle Verryenne comes in for Quinton de Kock and Duanne Olivier for Mulder. Losing Quinny is never ideal. He has been a big player for us. Losing any big player is never ideal. But we need to move on. We have a lot of talent in our squad and we need to back them. There were a lot of good things you can speak about at Centurion. You need to be fair to the environment. a lot of positives and good conversations for us to take out of that,” Elgar said at the toss.
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South Africa (Playing XI): Dean Elgar (c), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Kyle Verreynne (w), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi
India (Playing XI): KL Rahul(c), Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
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