India Predicted Playing 11 For 1st Test vs South Africa in Centurion: Focus on Vihari, Rahane

India Predicted Playing 11 (Image: BCCI)

Mumbai, December 20: India will face South Africa in the first Test at Centurion on December 26. This will be India’s first away tour under new coach Rahul Dravid and after appointing different captains for Tests and white ball formats.

Skipper Virat Kohli’s outings will be watched closely after his explosive press conference in which he contradicted BCCI President Sourav Ganguly on the ODI captaincy change issue.

But beyond such off-field issues, the focus will be on India’s team combination for the first Test. With Rohit Sharma ruled out of the Test series with a hamstring injury, KL Rahul has been named the vice-captain of the side for the Tests.

Rahul will open with Mayank Agarwal, who made a hundred against New Zealand at home recently.

Cheteshwar Pujara is expected to retain his place despite the recent travails as his general solidity might come handy in South Africa. But India will face some crunch time in the middle-order selection.

Similar to Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane too has been going through a trough of late, and India might just think of picking Shreyas Iyer ahead of him.

Shreyas made a hundred on his Test debut at Kanpur against New Zealand and made a fifty in the same match, the first Indian batsman to achieve the feat. Hanuma Vihari too will be in contention but with five bowlers in line to get picked up, he might have to wait a bit to get into to the 11.

However, Rahane has a good record against South Africa and it remains to be seen how much weightage the team management to those numbers.

With Ravindra Jadeja ruled out of the series with an injury, R Ashwin should make it the 11 and the rest of the first choice 11 should be made up by the fast bowlers including all-rounder Shardul Thakur.

Ishant Sharma is in the squad but he might just have to wait after pacer Mohammad Siraj’s impressive effort against New Zealand in the Mumbai Test.

In that context, here’s the predicted 11 for the first Test against South Africa.

India Predicted 11: KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (Captain), Shreyas Iyer / Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Shardul Thakur, R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj.