Virat Kohli-led team India on Thursday defeated South Africa in the first Test match in Centurion’s Supersport Park to take a 1-0 lead in the three-test match series. Mohammed Shami took 8 wickets in the match, while opening batsman and test vice-captain KL Rahul scored a century in the first innings of the match. This is the time India has won a test match at Centurion. India won this match on day 5 of the game.

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Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chairs a pre-budget meeting with the Finance Minister of States and Union Territories

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday chaired a meeting with the Finance Minister of all states and Union Territories. The new budget is likely to be present on February 1, 2022. She will become the first female Finance Minister to present budgets for four consecutive years.

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Virat Kohli, the Indian Test team captain is having a good time on the pitch, as the modern-day great batsman ended another year without a century after 2020. The last time Virat Kohli scored a century was on November 23, 2019, against Bangladesh at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

This year 2021 in particular, Kohli had a very tough time on the pitch and off the pitch both. In 11 test matches, Kohli played this year, he managed to garner only 536 runs with 4 fifties in 19 innings. This is Virat Kohli’s poorest form in Test cricket in a year since 2011 when the Indian Test captain had scored 202 runs in 5 matches.

Recently, a couple of weeks ago, he also lost his ODI captaincy to veteran opening batsman Rohit Sharma after the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) sacked him from the captaincy role. Reports also suggest that there is a rift between Kohli and the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly.

Earlier in November, Virat voluntarily stepped down from the captaincy role in the T20 format, when the Men in Blue failed to win the 2021 T20 World Cup and also lost against the arch-rivals Pakistan for the first time in World Cup history.

There are also multiple reports that suggest, Kohli is not on a good term with the current white-ball captain Rohit Sharma. However, the team India test skipper denied such reports and termed it as a rumour.

Its been more than 2 years since Virat has scored a century for the national team, and as per critics, one of his recent failures in test cricket is his struggle with balls outside the stumps. Fans on Twitter called him reckless for not leaving the balls outside the stumps and suggested Kohli to take a masterclass from the cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar.

Here’s what tweeple said about Virat Kohli’s batting failure:

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Indian Cricket Team head coach Rahul Dravid on Saturday, a day ahead of the Boxing Day Test match against South Africa, said that he will not reveal his internal conversation with players about the captaincy episode in the team

Dravid, who was appointed by the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) as the head coach of the national team after the T20 World Cup 2021, held a press conference on December 25 to address the team’s playing 11 and players availability for the 1st Test match against South Africa.

Dravid on Virat Kohli said, he wants to compete every time he plays and he is one of those players who loves playing Test cricket. The Men in Blue coach said that Virat has a huge role in the Indian team, as a player and a leader both.

When asked about Virat Kohli getting sacked from ODI captaincy, Dravid said that he will not talk reveal the internal talks with the payer on the same issue. He said that it’s the job of selectors to have such conversations with the media, that his job is coaching and managing the team’s players.

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On the playing XI of the first Test match, Dravid said that, in terms of who is going to play, the team is very clear with the group and will try to win the match and the series.

Virat Kohli-BCCI saga

Notably, On December 8, while announcing the Test team for the South Africa Tour, the BCCI sacked Virat Kohli from the ODI captaincy and appointed Rohit Sharma as the new captain to lead the Indian side in white-ball cricket. As per Virat Kohli, BCCI informed him just 90 minutes before removing him from the ODI captain. Virat also contradicted Ganguly’s statement of requesting him to not leave the T20 captaincy and said that he was not told by anyone to not leave the T20 captaincy.

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The Test series between South Africa and India will start from December 26, meaning it will be a boxing day test match between both countries. The first test match starting from Sunday will be played at Centurion Park in South Africa’s Jo’Burg.

Team India is on a two-month-long tour of South Africa, where they will play a three-test-match series and then also a three-match-ODI series starting from January 19, 2022. This test series is very crucial for both countries, considering the World Test Championship points table. India had started their WTC cycle against England in June 2021, while South Africa is yet to play any test match in the new WTC cycle.

For South Africa, opening batsman Dean Elgar will lead the side, while for the Men in Blue, Virat Kohli will be leading the Indian side. Both teams will miss their important players Rohit Sharma of India and Anrich Nortje for South Africa.

When and where to watch South Africa vs India 1st Test match:

South Africa vs India 1st Test match will be played behind closed doors in Jo’Burg’s Centurion Park from December 26 at 01:30 pm Indian Standard Time (IST). The match will be broadcast on Star Sports Network and OTT platform Disney Plus Hotstar.

Here’re predicted playing 11 for South Africa vs India

India Predicted Playing 11: Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah.

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South Africa Predicted Playing 11: Dean Elgar (c), Aiden Markram, Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, Keegan Petersen, Quinton de Kock (wk), Wiaan Mulder/ Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Duanne Olivier, Keshav Maharaj.

Team India will be playing without their most informed batsman Rohit Sharma, Priyank Panchal who was named his replacement will have a tough job to open the innings with current test vice-captain KL Rahul.

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