It is not often that Virat Kohli misses a cricket match for India across formats and the third Test, against South Africa at Cape Town, which is set to serve as a series decider, will serve as a comeback game for the regular Indian skipper after he missed the second Test at Johannesburg last week.
Virat Kohli missed the second Test at Wanderers, Johannesburg, due to an upper back spasm and watched his team beaten inside four days in a spectacular manner by the home team, who breached India’s fortress to win by 7 wickets and level the series 1-1. India had earlier won the first Test by 113 runs at the SuperSport Park in Centurion.
India head coach Rahul Dravid as well as captain for the second Test, the 34th man to lead India in the longest format, KL Rahul, both have confirmed that Kohli is all set to make a return to the team.
Rahul said after India’s defeat at Johannesburg,
“Virat is feeling better already, he’s been in the nets the last couple of days and he’s been fielding and running around on the field. I think he should be fine.”
India coach Dravid followed up by saying,
“From all accounts, he should be fine. He’s had the opportunity to run around a little bit, he’s had the opportunity to test it a little bit, I’ll be down only now at the moment in the nets with a few throwdowns and stuff, so hopefully with a few net sessions in Cape Town, he should be good to go.”
“I haven’t had a detailed discussion with the physio as yet, but from everything I’m hearing and from just having a chat with him, he’s really improving and should be good to go in four days’ time,”
Dravid added.
With Kohli fit to return, it is likely that Hanuma Vihari will make way for the regular India captain given that the team management and leadership group has continued to support the out-of-form middle-order senior batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. Both Pujara and Rahane failed in the first innings of the second Test but scored vital half-centuries to keep their careers afloat after a string of poor performances.