Shikhar Dhawan ruled out of the first Test against South Africa

India opener Shikhar Dhawan has been ruled out of the first Test against South Africa in which is all set to commence on January 5 in Cape Town. The news comes as a severe jolt to Team India ahead of their first overseas assignment of the year. They will play 3 Tests, six ODIs and three T20 Internationals during the 50-day gruelling tour against the Proteas. However, Dhawan’s injury has solved the opening conundrum for the visitors automatically as Murali Vijay and KL Rahul will shoulder the responsibility now.

Virat Kohli led side embarked on their tour to South Africa earlier this week after the skipper hosted his second reception in Mumbai on Tuesday. On the same day, Dhawan injured his ankle, the reason due to which he has been ruled out. Indian team management was set to open with Vijay and Dhawan given the latter’s ability to take the game away from the opposition quickly. But now the left-handed opener has time until January 10 to recover from the injury to be in contention for the second game in Johannesburg.

According to the sources close to Times of India, the skipper Kohli has also expressed his disappointment over Shikhar Dhawan ‘not being careful’ ahead of an all-important tour.

CSA approves BCCI’s request to practice on a centre wicket

Cricket South Africa (CSA) has approved the request of the Indian board and has made available the Boland Park centre wicket for practice. Team India had earlier denied playing the two-day warm-up game and opted for a training session before the first Test. This was not the first time that the team management had made a request to the BCCI for a centre-wicket practice but it never got approved.

When MS Dhoni was the captain, he would keep on making this request and BCCI would carry it forward. But every time, the request would be denied. In fact, India had made the same request to Cricket South Africa in 2013-14 too but they had denied it. This time they have agreed,” one of the sources was quoted as saying by TOI.

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