SA vs IND 2021: New India Vice Captain Announced for South Africa Tests. Check Details

India vice captain for SA vs IND 2021: In a massive recent development, opening batter KL Rahul has been named India’s vice-captain for the upcoming three-match Test series against South Africa. Team India is scheduled to play three Test matches against South Africa starting with the Boxing Day Test from 26 December in Centurion while the second and third Tests will begin from 3 and 11 January 2022 respectively.

KL Rahul India Vice Captain Announced for South Africa Tests

The national selectors originally announced Rohit Sharma as the Test vice-captain for the South Africa but the limited-overs skipper will not be available for the Test series due to a hamstring injury. According to a report stated by ANI, KL Rahul will be Virat Kohli’s deputy in the longest format of the game against the Proteas. This will be Rahul’s debut stint for any sort of captaincy role in Test cricket.

KL Rahul to don vice-captaincy hat for Test series against SA

Read @ANI Story | https://t.co/edywpAAfFH
#KLRahul pic.twitter.com/nAF34qufcd

— ANI Digital (@ani_digital) December 18, 2021

Related: SA vs IND Stats Guide for Test Series

SA vs IND 2021

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced Priyank Panchal as Rohit’s replacement for the South Africa Test series. India’s newly appointed full time white-ball captain Rohit Sharma has already started his rehabilitation programme at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. However, it is still very much unknown whether he will be able attain complete fitness for the three-match ODI series starting from 19 January, 2022 in Paarl.

Related: Will Virat Kohli Play South Africa ODIs? 

Earlier this week, India’s Test captain addressed the media in one of the most controversial press conferences in the history of Indian cricket as he came up with some surprising revelations. Kohli squashed all the rumours and revealed that he was always going to be available for the ODIs in South Africa. The 33-year-old cricketer also made a shocking revelation that nobody from the BCCI actually told him not to quit T20I captaincy and was informed just an hour-and-a-half before the official announcement, that he will no longer be India’s ODI captain.

Related: Likely India Playing 11 for 1st Test against South Africa

“I was contacted one-and-a-half hours before selection for Tests. The chief selector discussed the Test with me. Before the call ended I was told that the 5 selectors have decided that I won’t be ODI captain anymore. There was no prior communication about this,” stated Virat Kohli.

“When I told BCCI that I want to give up T20I captaincy, it was accepted really well. There was no hesitancy. I was told that it was a progressive step. I informed at that time that I would like to lead in ODIs and Tests. The communication from my side was clear but I had also informed that if the office bearers and selectors don’t think I should lead in other formats then that is fine,” he concluded.

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