KL Rahul leads India in 2nd Test, replaces injured Kohli

KL RAHUL, the player of the match in India’s first Test against South Africa in Centurion, was leading his country in the second match of the three-game series that started in Johannesburg on Monday (3). He replaced regular Test captain Virat Kohli who had an upper back spasm. Batter Hanuma Vihari replaced Kohli.

“Team India Captain Mr Virat Kohli had a spasm on his upper back this morning. 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. KL Rahul will captain the side in his absence,” Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Jay Shah said in an official release. By missing the Johannesburg Test, Kohli would have to wait to play his 100th Test till the next series.

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Rahul, who will lead India in the three-match one-day-international series after the Tests, won the toss and elected to bat. India were off to a slow start with Rahul and Mayank Agarwal putting up 36 runs for the first wicket in 19 overs. However, India lost two quick wickets after Rahul added 13 runs with Cheteshwar Pujara (3). Duanne Olivier, who was playing his first match of the series and a Test match after almost three years, picked Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane (0) in back-to-back deliveries. The visitors reached 53 for 3 at lunch with Rahul batting on 19 and Vihari four.

KL Rahul to lead India in South Africa one-day series

Speaking at the toss, Rahul, who became the 34th India captain to lead in red-ball cricket, said, “Unfortunately Virat has had an upper back spasm 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 hit a match-winning 123 in the first Test which India won by 113 runs and went up 1-0 in the series.

Kohli absence doesn't bother SA captain

South Africa captain Dean Elgar said, “It (Kohli not playing) doesn’t really bother me, we have got a Test match to play. Two changes: Kyle Verryenne comes in for QdK and Duanne Olivier for Mulder. Losing Quinny is never ideal. He has been a big player for us. We have a lot of talent in our squad and we need to back him. 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.”

Wicket-keeper Verreynne replaced Quinton de Kock who suddenly announced retirement from Tests after the first Test.

Since Rahul was the vice captain of the squad who replaced an injured Rohit Sharma who has been ruled out of the Test series due to hamstring injury, ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah became his deputy in the second Test.

Shreyas Iyer, who recently hit a hundred on Test debut against New Zealand, was also ruled out of the match due to a stomach bug. He did not feature in the playing XI in Centurion.

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

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