Centurion, Dec 26: India won the toss and chose to bat first against South Africa in the first Test here on the Boxing Day (Sunday). After winning the toss, the Indian captain Virat Kohli said that the team wants to put runs on the scoreboard.
He also confirmed that India will go with three seamers- Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj- and one all-rounder (Shardul Thakur).
“We will bat first. Runs on the board playing away home has been our strength,” Kohli said after winning the toss.
“The pitch tends to quicken up here on Day 2-3. Our success away from home started from the series we played here last time.
“Very challenging place to play. South African unit is always strong and they know the conditions. The prep has been wonderful. Quite lucky to get the centre-wicket for practice,” Kohli added.
On the other hand, South Africa skipper Dean Elgar said that Marco Jansen will be making his debut. He also added that the team, which is relatively inexperienced, prepared as best as they could.
“Looking forward to what is going to be a brilliant Test series. We had a good week’s camp in Johannesburg. We are prepared as best as we could,” Elgar said.
“There’s a debutant in Marco Jansen. Tall left-arm bowler who bowled well against India A. We got three frontline seamers, Mulder as an allrounder and Kesh as our spinner. Kyle Verreynne misses out,” he added.
Playing XIs:
India: Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), R Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
South Africa: Dean Elgar (c), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wk), Wiaan Mulder, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen.
