KOHLI OUT DUE TO BACK SPASM, BUMRAH NAMED VICE-CAPTAIN FOR THE SECOND TEST

India pacer Jasprit Bumrah has been named as vice-captain for the second Test against South Africa after skipper Virat Kohli was ruled out due to a spasm on his upper back.

In the absence of Kohli, batter KL Rahul will be leading the Men in Blue against Proteas here at the Imperial Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg on Monday. “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,” stated BCCI Secretary Jay Shah in an official BCCI release.

Speaking about the toss, Rahul 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.”

On the other hand, Proteas skipper Dean Elgar said, (On Kohli missing out) “It 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.”

Wicketkeeper-batter Kyle Verreynne will be in the Playing XI after Quinton De Kock announced his sudden retirement from Test cricket after the first game in Centurion.