IND vs SA 1st Test, India`s Probable Playing 11: Rahul Dravid Confirms Wicketkeeper`s Name For Centurion Test

KL Rahul has never kept wickets in Tests for India but Dravid believes that his experience of keeping in ODIs will help him tackle this exciting challenge during the Tests against South Africa.

Team India will resume their World Test Championship (WTC) journey when they take on South Africa in Centurion from Tuesday (December 26). On this tour, India are playing two Tests. The second match is next year in Cape Town. The trio of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and head coach is back together after the World Cup. The life moves on for these three after the hurt of the final of World Cup which India lost to Australia.

All eyes are on India's playing 11 for the 1st Test. There are some exciting names in the squad. India will definitely miss Mohammed Shami in this series hwo is ruled out due to ankle injury. Ishan Kishan took a break from cricket too and came back to India while Ruturaj Gaikwad was ruled out because of an injury as well. 

India are likely to open with Yashasvi Jaiswal and skipper Rohit, followed by Shubman Gill at No 3 and Virat Kohli at 4. Shreyas Iyer will bat at No 5. It is the wicketkeepers's slot that is in question here. 

There are two keepers in India squad in form of KS Bharat and KL Rahul. Bharat is not as efficient with the bat as Rahul is. At the same time, Rahul is not as good as Bharat with the keeping gloves, at least in this format of the game. But head coach Rahul Dravid has confirmed that it will be KL Rahul who will be donning the gloves and not Bharat. 

Dravid is hoping that Rahul's experience of keeping in the fifty overs cricket comes handy in the Tests and he delivers the good in the first Test. "It's an exciting challenge. It's an opportunity for him to do something different. With Ishan unavailable, we had a couple of keepers to choose from. Rahul is very confident about giving it a go. We understand that he hasn't done that quite often (in longest format), but he has done it in fifty overs, and even that is tough," Dravid said during a pre-match conference.

The conditions in South Africa are such that the visiting teams, especially from the subcontintent, must look to strengthen their batting. The swing and the bounce is tough to deal with in southern hemishphere countries like South Africa and Australia. Hence, the need to have more quality batters in the lineup.

"He (Rahul)has done a lot of keeping in the past five-six months. One of the things here is that there is more pace bowling than spin, which will ease him into the role. We will see how it goes. It is nice to have someone like him, someone who has the ability with the bat and keep," said the Indian head coach.

India probable playing 11 1st Test vs South Africa: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin/Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Mukesh Kumar