Virat Kohli has already been in the nets and “should be good” for the Test series decider against South Africa, India’s stand-in captain KL Rahul said on Thursday. Skipper Kohli was excluded from the second test due to upper back spasm. South Africa won the second Test by seven wickets to level the series. “Virat is already feeling better, has been in the nets and walking around for the past few days and I think he should be fine,” Rahul said during the post-match presentation. Head coach Rahul Dravid also provided an update on Kohli’s condition during the media interaction.
“He looks good and is hitting the nets. A few sessions in Cape Town he will be good to leave,” said the coach.
Rahul also spoke about Mohammad Siraj’s hamstring injury he sustained during the second test. Despite the injury, Siraj continued to bowl in the match but was far from his best.
“Siraj is starting to feel better every day. A break for a few days could really help him. But we also have quality on our bench, Ishant and Umesh are waiting.
“I’m looking forward to Cape Town. We expected every game to be competitive. A loss like this is disappointing, but we’ve always been a team that gets hungrier after a loss. Credits to South Africa for the way they hit.” said Rahul.
With South Africa chasing 240 on a tricky ground, India was the favourite, but the hosts put on a memorable batting performance to take a comfortable win.
Rahul said their substandard score of 202 in the first innings made a lot of difference in the outcome of the game.
“We all felt like we could do something special, 122 (on day four) wouldn’t be that easy to get, the field went up and down, but as I said, the South African batsmen were really determined and got the job.” done. If I have to be really tough, we could have made 60-70 runs more after winning the toss.” He also praised Shardul Thakur, who put in an all-round performance in the game, including a seven wicket-haul in the first innings.
Rahul also praised senior batters Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara, who hit crucial 50s in the second innings under extreme pressure.
“They’ve been great players for us, they’ve always done the job for the team over the years. They’ve obviously been under the pump a bit, but in the team we believe that Pujara and Ajinkya are our best mid-range batsmen. .
“We have always known that they could do something like that. Hopefully that will give them confidence and they can go out into the next test and put in an even better performance.”
The South African skipper hit a match-winning and undefeated 96 on day four to write a famous win for his team. Along the way, he also received many blows to the body, which was noticeable by his hard knock.
“I’d like to think that the blows I get give me extra motivation to perform. Some would call it stupid and others would call it brave. The bigger picture is that we have to win.
“We struggled to get a stable batting setup and we had to be very patient. We entrusted those positions to guys that we think can fill those roles and it’s great to see them pull it off said the left-hander.
On the team’s comeback from the series opener loss, he said: “Batting and bowling basics aren’t going away. We missed that in the first game. That said, it wasn’t easy. Face as a batting unit .
“As a bowling unit, sometimes the Indians were on top. Huge respect for our bowling unit, they showed a lot of character. With KG (Kagiso Rabada) something happened behind the scenes, but we’re not going to get into that. Sometimes KG has a rocket You could almost feel the intensity and focus then, he was in the zone.
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“The moment he has that attitude, he wants to bowl and contribute, you have to use it as a captain. It was great to see him on fire.” Elgar also keeps his cards close to his chest for the series decider.
“I was playing a domestic match in Cape Town, I’m not going to give any information. 1-1, South Africa vs India, I don’t think you could have written a better script,” he added.
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