KL Rahul Named Vice-Captain for South Africa Test Series

KL Rahul takes over as vice-captain in the absence of Rohit Sharma who is injured.

KL Rahul and Virat Kohli in training. 

Image: BCCI

With the absence of Rohit Sharma for the South Africa Test series due to injury, the responsibility of being the vice-captain has gone to KL Rahul.

KL Rahul will be Virat Kohli’s deputy for the three Tests in South Africa, beginning on 26 December at the Centurion.

Rohit Sharma was earlier ruled out of the series due to a hamstring injury, however it is not clear whether he will be available for the ODI series yet. Along with Rohit, ace all rounder Ravindra Jadeja has also been ruled out due to injury.

“The All-India Senior selection committee has named KL Rahul as vice-captain for the upcoming 3-match Test series against South Africa. KL Rahul replaces Rohit Sharma as vice-captain, who was ruled out of the Test series owing to a hamstring injury,” a BCCI statement on Saturday read.

The 29-year-old Rahul, who debuted in Test cricket in 2014, has played 40 matches so far and scored 2321 runs at an average of 35.16 with six centuries and 12 half-centuries against his name.

The South Africa tour is also the first overseas assignment for the newly appointed head coach Rahul Dravid. Ahead of the tour of SA, Virat Kohli said that the team is motivated to do well in a country where they have not won a series yet.

"We can take a lot of motivation from that (Johannesburg 2018 win). We probably won in the toughest conditions of that tour. So that should give us a lot of confidence. If we start off with the right mindset and with self-confidence and belief, we can definitely stand up to any challenge that comes our way and take a lot of heart from it," said Kohli.

"South Africa is one place where we have not won a series yet, so we are very motivated to do that and that mindset is always to go out there in any country and win the series. We don't think of winning just a Test match here and there and we will do our absolute best to make sure we keep contributing towards the cause. We will take a lot of motivation and belief from that win on the last tour," added Kohli.

Overall, India have played 20 Test matches in South Africa, winning just three, and in their last trip in 2018, lost the series 2-1. The teams who have defeated South Africa at home have been Australia, England and Sri Lanka.

The Indian team reached South Africa after three days of quarantine in Mumbai and have seen 4 T20s in the original tour schedule scrapped due to the COVID-19 variant Omicron.

India’s Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Priyank Panchal, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj