Indian skipper Virat Kohli has won the toss in the first Test in Centurion and has opted to bat first. Ajinkya Rahane has been included in the playing Xi while there were talks of him being dropped. Both Shreyas Iyer and Hanuma Vihari have been ignored for the first Test. India are seeking for their first-ever Test series win in the rainbow nation and the start has been a positive one so far.

South Africa, on the other hand, are lacking a bit of firepower in their batting line-up. In the absence of Hashim Amla, AB De Villiers and Faf Du Plessis, skipper Dea Elgar and Aide Markram have to take up the responsibility of scoring the majority of the runs. Marco Jansen will be making his debut for the Proteas in the Test match. The Indians saw him playing in the IPL for Mumbai Indians in the first leg of IPL 2021. 

Meanwhile, both the teams have gone into the Test match with a pace-heavy bowling line-up. 

🪙 TOSS RESULT

🇮🇳 @BCCI have won the toss
🔴 🏏 They will bat first

📺 Catch it live on SuperSport Grandstand and SABC 3
📝 Ball by Ball https://t.co/c1ztvrT95P#SAvIND #FreedomTestSeries #BetwayTestSeries #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/a4mH5pJUFX

— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) December 26, 2021

Here is what both captains said at the toss.

Runs On The Board Overseas Has Been Out Strength: India Skipper Virat Kohli

The two Captains pose with the silverware ahead of the 1st Test.#SAvIND #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/VN39194u5u

— BCCI (@BCCI) December 26, 2021

Virat Kohli: “We will bat first. Runs on the board playing away home has been our strength. 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. We are playing four bowlers and an all-rounder; Siraj, Shami, Bumrah, Ashwin and Thakur is the all-rounder.”

Dean Elgar: Nice and relaxed and 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. There’s a debutant in Marco Jansen. Tall left-arm bowler who bowled well against India A. Mulder as all-rounder. Kesh is our spinner. KG, Lungi and Marco are the pacers.”

https://twitter.com/ImAnuragBansal/status/1475006863879987202?s=20

https://twitter.com/tanyamidhaa/status/1474664405874851841?s=20

Ajinkya Rahane double ton at Centurion loading.

— Shivani Shukla (@iShivani_Shukla) December 26, 2021

South Africa vs India, 1st Test Playing XI 

South Africa

Dean Elgar(c), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock(w), Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngid

India

 KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

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