South Africa vs India: Hardik Pandya finds no place in Agarkar's playing XI for Centurion Test

Former Indian cricketer Ajit Agarkar recently picked up his playing XI that he would like to see in the upcoming Centurion Test. Team India is all set to lock horns with South Africa in the second Test of the 3-match Test series at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. After having lost the first Test in Cape Town, the Indian team will enter the second Test as the underdogs.

They showed no fight with the bat in the previous game. The only batsman who looked threatening was Hardik Pandya. Pandya, too, failed to get his act together in the second innings of the match. Well, with the second Test coming up, the selection conundrums for the Indian team management seems to be on the rise. There have been a lot of discussions on who would make the cut in the game.

Also, the fact that Indian skipper Virat Kohli has the habit of surprising everyone with his selections makes things even more interesting and intriguing at the moment. While a lot of team combinations are floating in the media, Ajit Agarkar put forth his likely XI too.

Surprisingly, Agarkar decided to leave out Hardik Pandya from his scheme of things. It is worth noting that Hardik Pandya was arguably the solitary decent performer for India in the match. Not only did Pandya score a fighting 93 in the first innings, he also accounted for the dismissals of both the South African openers in the second innings.

The squad that Ajit Agarkar picked is pretty much the same that had played for India in Cape Town. In place of Hardik Pandya, he named Ajinkya Rahane to make a comeback to the side. Also, opener Shikhar Dhawan makes way for KL Rahul in Agarkar’s XI. Agarkar also remarked that one among Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Ishant Sharma would play the match.

Here is a look at the XI picked up by Ajit Agarkar for Centurion Test:

Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami.

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