Kohli explains the omission of Ajinkya Rahane

Bengaluru, January 9: The Indian playing XI for the first Test against South Africa at Cape Town raised some eyebrows, particularly the absence of Ajinkya Rahane in the middle order.

Rahane, who was appointed as the vice-captain of the team, was omitted in favour of Rohit Sharma. Kohli said Rohit was preferred because of his current form.

"Well, we decided to go on current form. Rohit has scored runs in the last three Test matches that he has played, and he was batting well, even in the series against Sri Lanka," said Kohli in the post-match media conference.

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"These things can always be looked at in hindsight -- thinking what if or what if not. But we decided to go with this combination and current form was definitely the criterion," said Kohli.

Rahane was not among runs of late but had a successful tour to South Africa in 2014 when he finished third behind Cheteswar Pujara (280) and Virat Kohli (272) with 209 runs.

South African captain Faf du Plessis too expressed his surprise with India's team selection. Du Plessis said the inclusion of Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit had surprised him and the team.

"We were surprised. We didn't think that Jasprit Bumrah would have played. We know that he's done really well in one-day cricket but we were preparing more for the other seamers because they've played a lot of Tests," said Du Plessis.

"I think the other guy was Rohit Sharma ahead of Ajinkya Rahane. He's been in a bit of form one-day cricket wise so they're probably just running with that," he said.