Revealed: Here's Why Virat Kohli Isn't Included In The Indian Playing XI For The 2nd Test vs South Africa

India Test captain Virat Kohli missed the second Test match of the three-match series against South Africa being played at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on January 3, 2022. In his place, KL Rahul led the Indian team, given that he was named vice-captain in absence of Rohit Sharma, who was injured and missed this series.

Virat Kohli had led the Indian team to a famous Test win in the first match at the Supersport Park in Centurion, which India won by 113 runs to go 1-0 up in the series. Kohli’s extended run of no centuries and low scores continued in the first Test match as well as he scored just 35 and 18 runs in the two innings in Centurion.

KL Rahul Reveals Why Virat Kohli Misses Out  

The commentators were curious as to how and why Virat Kohli was not ready for the toss and instead KL Rahul strolled into the middle with South African captain Dean Elgar for the toss. KL Rahul won the toss and chose to bat first and the first question asked to him was about Virat Kohli and why the mercurial captain and ace batter was missing out from the playing XI.

KL Rahul was quoted by ESPNCricinfo saying: “Unfortunately Virat has had an upper back spasm and hopefully he’ll recover for the next Test.”

“It is every Indian player’s dream to captain his country. Really honored and looking forward to this challenge. We have had a few good wins here and hopefully we’ll look to continue that. Hanuma Vihari comes in place of VIrat. Just the one change. It was a good Test at Centurion overall. We really performed well as a team and are really excited about this match,” he added.

Virat Kohli was supposed to play his 100^th Test match in the third match of the series in Cape Town and now with him missing the Johannesburg Test match, it is likely that his 100^th Test match will come in front of the home crowd when India hosts Sri Lanka for a two-Test series in February-March.

Meanwhile, Dean Elgar also revealed two changes to the South African playing XI, with Kyle Verreynne replacing Quinton de Kock who retired from Tests after the Centurion match and Duanne Olivier made his South Africa return in place of Wiaan Mulder.

Also Read: It Was Not Right, He Could Have Been Treated Slightly Better – Aakash Chopra On Shikhar Dhawan’s Test Career