India play without Kohli, win toss; bat first

Johannesburg, Jan 3: India won the toss and elected to bat first against South Africa in the second Test here at the Wanderers stadium on Monday.
Surprisingly, India’s KL Rahul walked in for toss. The top-order batter stood in for regular captain Virat Kohli, who misses out the match due to an upper back spasm.
The only change in the Indian line-up is Hanuma Vihari coming in for Kohli.
“Unfortunately Virat has had an upper back spasm, the physios are working on him and hopefully he’ll recover for the next Test,” said Rahul.
Talking about leading the team, Rahul said, “It is every Indian player’s dream to captain his country. Really honoured and looking forward to this challenge. We have had a few good wins here and hopefully we’ll look to continue that.”
“It was a good Test at Centurion overall. We really performed well as a team and are really excited about this match,” the stand-in skipper added.
South Africa captain Dean Elgar, on the other hand, confirmed two changes in the line-up, with Kyle Verreynne in for recently retired Quinton de Kock and Duanne Olivier for Wiaan Mulder.
“Doesn’t really bother me (who is the captain). We have got a Test match to play,” said Elgar.
“Losing Quinny is never ideal. He has been a big player for us. Losing any big player is never ideal. But we need to move on. We have a lot of talent in our squad and we need to back them.
“There were a lot of good things you can speak about at Centurion. You need to be fair to the environment. A lot of positives and good conversations for us to take out of that,” the South African added.
Playing XIs:
India: KL Rahul(c), Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
South Africa: Dean Elgar (c), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi.