India wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant who is leading the side in the second Test match against South Africa said that the regular skipper Shubman Gill was eager to feature in the Guwahati Test. Notably, Gill, who was appointed India's Test and ODI captain earlier this year, is missing the second Test due to a neck injury.
Rishabh Pant on Shubman Gill's injury
During the toss against South Africa, Pant said that Gill's body is not allowing him to play for India as he is getting well slowly.
"Shubman is getting well slowly, slowly. He was very eager to play the match. But at the same time, his body didn't allow it" said Rishabh Pant at toss
India vs South Africa 2nd Test toss
Coming back to the second Test match, South Africa captain Temba Bavuma won the toss and opted to bat as the Proteas featured with one change; Muthusamy came in, and Bosch was out. On the other hand, India featured with two changes with Nitish Kumar Reddy coming as Shubman Gill's replacement and Sai Sudharsan replacing Axar Patel.
Guwahati hosting Test for first time
This is the first-ever Test match that is taking place in Guwahati and the First Test for Risahabh Pant as a captain as well. Rishabh Pant is the second wicketkeeper to lead India in Tests after MS Dhoni did that in 60 matches between 2008 and 2014.
India vs South Africa 2nd Test playing XIs
India (Playing XI): KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Dhruv Jurel, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
South Africa (Playing XI): Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Wiaan Mulder, Temba Bavuma(c), Tony de Zorzi, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne(w), Marco Jansen, Senuran Muthusamy, Simon Harmer, Keshav Maharaj