India have won the toss and opted to bat in the second Test against South Africa where visitors will be seen spearheaded by KL Rahul in the absence of Virat Kohli due to upper back spasm. Hanuma Vihari, who was already in South Africa with India ‘A’ team for the preparation, has been finally given a chance to prove his case and hence included in the squad as Virat's replacement.
“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,” the stand-in skipper Rahul said.
KL Rahul is the first Indian captain since Mohammad Azharuddin in 1990 to lead the team in Test cricket before doing so in limited-overs internationals.
South Africa skipper Dean Elgar also put forth his view about their chances in the match in the backdrop of Virat's absence.
“It doesn't really bother me, we have got a Test match to play,” Elgar said.
Speaking on the two changes in the side he said, “Kyle Verryenne comes in for (Quinny) 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,” he added.
India playing XI: KL Rahul (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicket keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
South Africa playing XI: Dean Elgar (Captain), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Kyle Verreynne (wicket keeper), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi
