CRICKET
Rahul Dravid confirms ‘debut’ ahead of first test between India and South Africa
Test Cricket is set to dominate headlines for the next few days. Centurion will play host the first Test Match between India and South Africa on the 26th of December. It is going to be a special Boxing Day affair for cricket fans around the world.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will be playing for India after a month away from the game. Apart from the two veteran batters, Rahul Dravid is back at the helm of affairs. The former Indian batter was the coach of the T20I team before taking a break for the ODI series.
Team India is posed with a huge dilemma ahead of the first game on Tuesday. There are a couple of injuries which has affected the team. Mohammed Shami is already out due to an ankle injury. Ruturaj Gaikwad is also back home due to an injury to his finger which took place during the 2nd ODI. Abhimanyu Eeswaran has been drafted as the replacement.
Indian Coach drops massive team news for first Test –
Indian coach Rahul Dravid has confirmed that 31-year-old KL Rahul is set to keep wickets during the 1st Test. Ishan Kishan is already back in India after revealing the Mental Fatigue reason behind the step.
While addressing the press, Rahul Dravid said “It’s an exciting challenge. It’s an opportunity for him to do something different. With Ishan unavailable, we had a couple of keepers to choose from. Rahul is very confident about giving it a go. We understand that he hasn’t done that quite often (in longest format), but he has done it in fifty overs, and even that is tough,”
Rahul Dravid also said to the media “He has done a lot of keeping in the past five-six months. One of the things here is that there is more pace bowling than spin, which will ease him into the role. We will see how it goes. It is nice to have someone like him, someone who has the ability with the bat and keep,”
KS Bharat was named as the replacement for Ishan Kishan just a few days ago. The 30-year-old has played five Test matches for India. While his wicket-keeping is considered safe, it’s the batting which hasn’t been up to the mark. This also means that KL Rahul will at number six with Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal opening the batting.