‘With a heavy heart I’ll have to leave him out’ – Sanjay Manjrekar suggests two changes in India’s playing XI for Cape Town Test

With an aim of scripting history, Team India will take on South Africa in the third and final Test of the series. Notably, the rainbow nation is the only country where India are yet to record a Test series win. As the ongoing series is poised at 1-1, Virat Kohli’s men will conquer the final frontier if they manage to win the final Test, which gets underway on January 11 at the Newlands in Cape Town.

Regular skipper Virat Kohli, who missed the second Test due to an upper back spasm, has regained full fitness and is set to come back in the XI. At the same time, Mohammed Siraj will give the final Test a miss due to an upper back spasm. Hence, the visitors are set to make some changes in the playing XI.

Speaking of the same, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar said Hanuma Vihari would make way for Kohli while veteran pacer Ishant Sharma will come at an expense of Siraj.

I have to leave out Hanuma Vihari to accommodate Virat Kohli: Sanjay Manjrekar

“With a heavy heart I have to say that I have to leave out Hanuma Vihari to accommodate Virat Kohli with the big turmoil in my head on whether Rahane should be dropped despite a fifty. Because you have to look that the lean patch has lasted for too long, whether that one fifty deserves a kick out of that playing XI is something that I have debated in my mind,” Manjrekar said in a conversation with ESPNcricinfo.

Meanwhile, Kohli, addressed the media on the eve of the game and opened up about his lean patch. “It’s not the first time. England 2014 is one of those phases. I don’t look at myself from the lense that the outside world looks at me,” Kohli said in the pre-match press conference.

“In sport sometimes things don’t go as you want but as a batsman I have been involved in important partnerships when the team needs me. I am in a position where people will judge me but I don’t look at myself like that,” he added.