India have won the toss and elected to bat first in the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town.
Kohli, who missed the second Test due back spasm, returned to lead India as Hanuma Vihari has been asked to sit of the team despite his good batting in the second innings of the second Test in Johannesburg.
“You cannot control what’s above your head. Runs on this venue have always worked out well at this venue. I am fit and fine. I come in for Vihari. Siraj missed out because of a niggle and Umesh comes in for him. Umesh has been very potent with the ball recently, very handy in the field and with the bat as well,” the India skipper said at the toss.
“It was a tough decision to choose between the two. We are expected to win every Test we play overseas and that fourth innings chase from South Africa was a special one from them. It is a beautiful stadium and we are very excited,” he added.
South Africa are unchanged for the second Test.
“Ideally you want to bat first on this surface and given the overhead conditions it might not be a bad idea to bowl first. The cricket we have been playing the last few months has been very special given the number of players we lost,” said Elgar.
“One good thing about having younger guys come in is that they come with a fresh, new mindset which is quite warming for us and then me who has this old- school mentality which has been a balancing act for us and obviously we try to implement that with what we have in the change room. We are unchanged,” he added.
Playing XI:
South Africa: Dean Elgar(c), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Kyle Verreynne(w), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi.
India: KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav.
