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After their loss in the series opener against South Africa in Cape Town, India was expected to make changes to their team. While some had expected Ajinkya Rahane to play, no one had foreseen the changes that Virat Kohli announced on Saturday, 13 January.
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After South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis won the toss and opted to bat in second Test at Centurion, Virat said that wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel would be coming for Wriddhiman Saha, who had a niggle in his hamstring. KL Rahul replaced Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar missed out as Ishant Sharma came in due to the extra bounce that he can extract, added the skipper.
Bhuvneshwar not only delivered with the ball in the first Test, but had also batted the longest at Newlands. Twitter hence could not fathom his exclusion from India’s playing eleven for the all-important match. With one loss, India must win this match or draw it to keep the series alive.
Centurion Test: Playing XI
India: Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Parthiv Patel, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma.
South Africa: Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis (capt), Quinton de Kock, Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Morne Morkel.
India's tour to South Africa, that started on 5 January, includes 3 Tests, 6 One Day Internationals and 3 T20 Internationals.
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