SA vs IND 2018: Ajit Agarkar Leaves Out Hardik Pandya From his Playing XI for the Second Test

With the hours to go to the start of the second Test between South Africa and India, Ajit Agarkar has picked his playing XI for the match. Agarkar’s XI has a surprise exclusion of India’s star performer in the first Test Hardik Pandya. Hardik Pandya has been India’s finest search for a genuine all-rounder off-late, and he proved his potential in the first Test against South Africa when rescued India in the first innings and scored a gutsy 93 off 95 balls.

His bowling has been important for India in the limited-overs format, and he continued to the same in the first Test as well when he took 2 for 27 in the second innings. With the Indian management sure to make some changes to the side and Virat Kohli having a knack of surprising the fans with his choice of personnel, the fans are eager to see who makes a cut to the XI in the second Test scheduled to be played in Centurion.

Kohli surprised the Indian fans when he picked Rohit Sharma instead of India’s mainstay on away tours Ajinkya Rahane. The Indian batting failed miserably in the first Test, none of the batsmen showed any fight with the bat in both the innings, Pandya was the only batsman to take India to a respectable total in the first innings. However, he failed to repeat his heroics in the second innings as he could only manage to score one.

Agarkar has also brought in KL Rahul instead of Shikhar Dhawan who failed in both innings of the first Test and also feels that anyone of Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Ishant Sharma will play in the second Test.

Here is Agarkar’s playing Xi for the second Test-:

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

Follow more news about India’s tour of South Africa 2018 here.