SA vs IND: Virat Kohli spotted chatting with South African players in dugout

Team India suffered a major blow ahead of the ongoing second Test against South Africa with regular skipper Virat Kohli got ruled out of the fixture. As the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg is Kohli’s happy hunting ground, fans were expecting him to make his bat talk and gain his mojo back. However, an upper back spasm meant the 33-year-old won’t take the field.

While KL Rahul took over the leadership duties in his absence, Jasprit Bumrah was named the stand-in vice-captain. Meanwhile, Kohli, despite being out of action, still managed to bag attention. The veteran cricketer went to South African players dugout to have a chat with the opposition players. Considering his body language and gestures, the Indian skipper seemed to have engaged in a serious discussion.

Yh bnda bor hogya SA camp mei chala gya 😭👍🤣 pic.twitter.com/tfdGRKpOrg

— pragya. (@girlliketoswing) January 4, 2022

Hopefully, Virat Kohli will be available for the third Test: KL Rahul

Meanwhile, stand-in captain KL Rahul is hopeful of Kohli featuring in the final Test. He also seemed pretty excited ahead of his maiden leadership assignment in national colours. “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 honored and looking forward to this challenge. We have had a few good wins here and hopefully we’ll look to continue that,” he said during the toss session.

“We really performed well as a team and are really excited about this match,” added Rahul. Speaking of the ongoing contest, India’s decision of batting first didn’t seem spot on as they were bundled out for a paltry 202. While Marco Jansen took four wickets, Kagiso Rabada and Duanne Olivier took three wickets apiece.

For India, KL Rahul top scored with 50. In reply, South Africa lost opener Aiden Markram cheaply. However, skipper Dean Elgar joined forces with Keegan Petersen and the duo added 74 runs for the second wicket to put their side on command. Just when things were looking perfect for South Africa, Shardul Thakur ran through their line-up with a maiden five-wicket haul in Test matches.

The contest is getting spiced up with every over and it would be interesting to see how the remaining clash pans out.