Former Indian cricketer and currently Team India’s Head Coach Rahul Dravid is hopeful that Virat Kohli will return for the third and the final test against the Proteas at Cape Town.
Team India’s full time red ball skipper Virat Kohli was ruled out of the second test due to back spasm. The Men in Blue led by KL Rahul suffered a seven-wicket defeat at Johannesburg. Middle order batsmen Hanuma Vihari replaced the skipper for the second test.
Team India’s head coach Rahul Dravid has addressed a virtual press conference after the game in which he provided an update on Kohli’s injury. Dravid is confident that the 33-year-old will participate in the third and final test at Cape Town which is scheduled to start from January 11.
“Virat Kohli should be fine from all accounts, he should be fine. He has had the opportunity to run around a little bit, he has had the opportunity to test it a little bit. Hopefully with a couple of net sessions in Cape Town, he should be good to go. Everything I am hearing and just having a chat with him, he should be good to go in four days’ time,” team India’s head coach Rahul Dravid said during a virtual press conference.
When asked about team India’s batting performance so far in the test series, Dravid remarked said, ”It has been challenging wickets for both the teams, South Africa’s fourth innings was probably their best with the bat. Yes, as a batting unit we can look to seize a few key moments and when we get partnerships, we can look to make them longer. It was challenging in the first innings but we could have gotten 55-60 runs more which could have made a huge difference.”
“Certainly, we would like to bat a little better. Maybe the guys who got starts could have converted them into 100s. That was the difference in the first game, we had Rahul scoring century for us and we ended up on the winning side. Dean Elgar scored 96 in this Test and South Africa ended up on the winning side,” he added.
After rain interrupted the course of the play on Day 4, the Proteas skipper Dean Elgar led his side to victory with an unbeaten 96 and levelled the series by 1-1. South Africa required 122 runs with 8 wickets in hand when they came in to bat in the final session of Day 4.