Less than a week remains for the start of the first Test match between India and South Africa as the teams gear up for the three-match Test series. Virat Kohli, who has been in the news for off-field issues, has now shifted his attention to on-field issues. The Indian Test skipper has started his batting routines under the close observation of head coach Rahul Dravid.
Kohli is a different player from the one he was in 2018, he has now gone from averaging an international hundred every three innings to without a hundred in the last two years. The Indian Test captain has started to work on different sections of his batting and would very much be poised to end his century drought. The Indian team will be poised to win its first-ever Test series win in South Africa.
Kohli, who relinquished his T20I captaincy after the T20 World Cup in United Arab Emirates (UAE), was sacked from the ODI captaincy of late . The captaincy pressure was one of the reasons why the Delhi-born batter was struggling for form. Dravid, who has 48 international hundreds to his name, could provide the best possible solution for the 33-year-old Kohli to get back to his best.
The right-handed batter will have added on duties on his shoulders as Team India will be without Rohit Sharma for the Test series. Rohit, appointed as the vice-captain of the Test side, got injured during the training in Mumbai on the eve of the tour. KL Rahul will now act as the deputy to Kohli as the India team goes in search for the maiden Test series win on South African soil.
Kohli struck on 70 international hundreds, last scored a ton on 23rd November 2019 against Bangladesh. He is one shy of Ricky Ponting’s tally of 71 hundred while he remains long far away from Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of 100 international centuries. India will start its campaign on Boxing Day (December 26) in Centurion. The Indian team is also scheduled to play a three-match ODI series in January for which Rohit is expected to return and lead the side.
