Indian skipper Virat Kohli likely to return for third Test in Cape Town: Rahul Dravid

JOHANNESBURG, January 7

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India captain Virat Kohli should be “good to go” for the decisive third Test against South Africa, which starts in Cape Town on Tuesday, coach Rahul Dravid said.

Kohli missed his side’s seven-wicket defeat in the second Test at the Wanderers after pulling up with a back spasm but has been back in the nets and resumed training, Dravid added.

“I think he should be fine. He’s had the opportunity to run around a little bit, he’s had the opportunity to test it a little bit,” said Dravid as India, who won the first Test in Centurion by 113 runs, prepared to fly out of Johannesburg.

“Hopefully, with a couple of net sessions in Cape Town, he should be good to go. From everything that I’m hearing, he is really improving and should be OK to play,” he added.

India were captained by KL Rahul in Kohli’s absence with Hanuma Vihari coming into his place in the batting line-up.

Siraj not fully fit

India might have to make a change to their bowling attack with Mohammed Siraj to be assessed after struggling throughout the second Test with a hamstring niggle.

“Siraj is not fully fit and we need to check going forward what is his fitness status in the next four days, whether he can get fit,” Dravid said.

Dravid said that losing Siraj played a factor in the game. “We had the fifth bowler and we couldn’t use him as much as we would have liked in that first innings and it did affect our strategy,” he said.

Starting the fourth day’s proceedings with Ravichandran Ashwin did draw a lot of flak but the head coach defended the decision. “I guess we saw the ball spinning on the third day for Ashwin and we wanted to get him into action till the ball was dry and see if he gets some spin in first few overs. As the ball got wet, it was difficult to get into the game.” — Agencies

Pant’s choice

Dravid hinted at having a conversation with wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant over the timing of his shots, including the wild slog that led to his dismissal in the second innings of the second Test. “We know Rishabh plays positively and he plays in a particular manner and that has got him a little bit of success. But of course there are times when we are going to have to have some sort of level of conversations around that,” Dravid said. “No one is going to ever tell Rishabh not to be a positive player or not to be an aggressive player but sometimes it is just the question of picking and choosing the time to do that,” he added.