The Indian team had the luxury of being led by two Rahuls when KL went on the toss to lead the Indian team under coach Dravid’s guidance as regular skipper Virat Kohli suffered an upper back spasm in the second match against South Africa. was dropped from the test.
Dravid, who replaced Ravi Shastri as India’s head coach in November last year, captained the Indian team in 20 Test matches during his playing days and led the tourists to Test victory in Johannesburg in 2006.
Slowly learning to fit into multiple roles as per the requirements, KL is often compared to coach Dravid. Like Rahul Dravid, he has played in the middle order, kept wickets, opened the innings and led when asked to.
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After becoming the 34th Test player to lead India, Rahul said it was a dream to lead his team and he was looking forward to the visitors’ challenge to a historic series win in South Africa. Rahul is the fourth Indian Test captain from Karnataka after Gundappa Vishwanath, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble.
This is the first time that Rahul is leading the Indian team in any format of the game. He is also set to lead the ODI side in the three-match series against South Africa, starting January 19 in Paarl, as Rohit Sharma failed to recover from his hamstring injury.
Rahul won the toss and elected to bat after winning the toss on the first day of the second Test against South Africa at Wanderers on Monday, initially to take advantage of the expected wicket in favor of the batsmen.
“Captaining my country is a dream, so I am looking forward to the challenge,” said Rahul, one of the top performers in India’s 113-run win in the first Test in Pretoria last week.
“We have had some good wins here at Wanderers and would like to continue that,” he said. India are unbeaten in the last five Tests at Wanderers, with two wins and three draws.
28-year-old Hanuma Vihari has been included in India’s only change in place of Kohli. Vihari is expected to bat at number five in his 13th Test, but first after playing against Australia in Sydney a year ago.