Ruturaj Gaikwad has been ruled out of the Test series due to a fracture to his finger which is likely to take him five weeks to recover from
Indian cricket team talisman Virat Kohli had flown out from South Africa in the middle of the series against the Proteas due to some personal emergency in family, it has been learnt.
While the nature of the emergency was not clear, the prolific batter, however, will be back in time for India’s first Test match against South Africa in Centurion, which starts from December 26.
News from South Africa is that Kohli had asked for a break of two days from the Indian team management. He missed the three-day intra-squad game currently underway in Pretoria’s Tuks Oval.
Kohli has an excellent record against South Africa, scoring 1236 runs in 24 innings at an average of 56.18. He has three hundreds and four 50s against the Proteas. One of his most memorable Test knocks came against South Africa when he scored an unbeaten 254 in the second Test at Pune to guide India to victory by an innings and 137 runs in 2019.
Meanwhile, Ruturaj Gaikwad has been ruled out of the Test series due to a fracture to his finger which is likely to take him five weeks to recover from. The Board of Control for Cricket in India is likely to name a replacement today for Gaikwad.
The 26-year-old suffered the injury to his finger while during the second ODI against the Proteas at Port Elizabeth on December 19.
India have never won a Test series in South Africa. India have been preparing for the Test series by resting players from other formats in South Africa. India captain Rohit Sharma, Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah missed both the T20I and ODI games versus the Proteas while Shreyas Iyer featured in just a single One-Day International.
Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Siraj sat out the entire three-match ODI series, which concluded on Thursday.
On Thursday, Sanju Samson scored his maiden ODI century for India to take the visitors to a 2-1 ODI series victory at Boland Park.
The will play a two-match Test series starting with the Boxing Day Test, which starts from December 26 and concludes on December 30. The second Test will be played at Cape Town from January 3.
Source:indianexpress.com