Virat Kohli has been ruled out of the Johannesburg Test due to a back spasm and KL Rahul has been appointed as the captain of the side against South Africa.
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In a major development before the start of the Johannesburg Test, Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli was ruled out of the match. The main reason for Virat Kohli’s absence is a back spasm. Virat Kohli has endured a torrid couple of years with the bat as he has not managed to score a century in any format. KL Rahul stated that he hoped Virat Kohli was available for the Cape Town Test. India is currently leading the three-match series 1-0 and is on the cusp of a historic series in South Africa.
The absence of Virat Kohli for Johannesburg is a major blow for him. The right-hander would have played his 100th Test in Cape Town but instead, he will have to wait until the Australia series in March to get to his 100th Test. The absence of Virat Kohli for the Johannesburg Test continues the see-saw affair that Virat Kohli has had with the BCCI ever since he decided to relinquish the captaincy of the T20 team after the end of the ICC World T20 2021.
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly revealed that Virat Kohli was requested “not to step down” as T20 captain for Team India. However, once Kohli refused to continue as skipper for the shortest format, the selectors decided to hand the ODI reins to Rohit Sharma. Selectors felt that they cannot have two white ball captains in the limited-overs formats, according to Ganguly. The former Indian skipper’s comments came after the BCCI announced Rohit as the limited-overs captain.
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Besides, the Mumbai Indians skipper was appointed as vice-captain in Tests, thereby replacing senior batsman Ajinkya Rahane. Ganguly also informed that Kohli was spoken to on the same and duly accepted the decision. “We had requested Virat not to step down as T20 captain but he didn’t want to continue as captain. So, the selectors felt that they cannot have two white ball captains in two white-ball formats. That’s too much of leadership,” former Indian captain Ganguly told PTI.
Kohli opened up on how the entire process of naming Rohit Sharma as Team India’s new ODI captain, in place of him, transpired. Virat, while addressing the media before the team’s departure for the Test series in South Africa, said that he was informed by the selectors that he won’t be the ODI captain anymore just one and a half hours before the Test squad for the South Africa series was announced and that there was no prior communication on the same from the BCCI.
India won the toss and chose to bat in the Johannesburg Test. The Indian cricket team included Hanuma Vihari in place of Virat Kohli. For South Africa, there were two changes. Kyle Verreyne replaced Quinton de Kock who announced his retirement. The other change was Duanne Olivier for Wiaan Mulder.
India made a decent start with Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul hitting boundaries at will. But, Marco Jansen got the breakthrough when he dismissed Agarwal for 26. India has never lost in Johannesburg, winning two out of the five Tests and drawing three in 29 years.
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