Virat Kohli will miss India’s Test match against South Africa in Johannesburg with KL Rahul walking out for the toss at the Wanderers Stadium on Monday.
Rahul said that Kohli was having upper back spasms and hoped he would regain fitness for the third Test. The stand-in captain, who is going to lead the side in the upcoming ODIs, won the toss and opted to bat.
Hanuma Vihari replaces the Indian Test captain for the second Test, making a comeback to the side after a while out.
“Kohli had a spasm on his upper back this morning,” the board secretary Jay Shah said in a press release. “He won’t feature in the second Test against South Africa at The Wanderers. The BCCI medical team will be monitoring him during the course of this Test match.”
Rahul becomes the 34th player to lead India in a men’s Test match.
The All-India Senior Selection Committee has also named Jasprit Bumrah as vice-captain for the match. Bumrah was recently appointed vice captain for the ODI series as well. BCCI also confirmed Shreyas Iyer was ruled out of selection for the second Test owing to a stomach bug.
India, who are leading the series 1-0, are yet to be beaten in a Test match at South Africa’s premier cricket stadium and have a record of two wins and three draws since their first tour of South Africa in 1992/93.
Despite the Wanderers being renowned as a ground favouring fast bowlers -– which should have put India at a disadvantage on some of their earlier tours, before the emergence of their potent current pace bowling attack –- India have performed consistently well in Johannesburg.
South Africa made two changes, with Kyle Verreynne replacing the now-retired Quinton de Kock while Duanne Olivier returned to the XI in place of Wiaan Mulder.
South Africa: Dean Elgar (capt), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi
India: KL Rahul (capt), Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wkt), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
Umpires: Marais Erasmus, Allahuddien Paleker (both RSA).
TV umpire: Adrian Holdstock (RSA).
Match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM).
Here are some reactions to the surprise development at the toss:
Kohli, who has not had the best of runs with the bat in recent times, would have loved to lead India to a historic series win if that is to happen in Jo’burg. Kohli will thus not be able to complete his landmark 100th Test in the series-finale at Cape Town. The 33-year-old has been selected to play in the ODI series against the Proteas starting January 19. Rahul will captain India in that rubber as regular white-ball skipper Rohit Sharma is out injured.
As per the Indian team’s fixtures, Kohli could play his 100th Test against Sri Lanka in Bengaluru, at his IPL home ground, in February.
It is worth noting that head coach Rahul Dravid, while addressing the pre-match press conference on Sunday, gave no indication of any possible injury concerns over Kohli. Dravid, one of India’s all-time greats, had lent support to the superstar batter for the “phenomenal” manner in which he has led the team despite “all the noise around him”.
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