India faced a seven-wicket defeat in the second Test against South Africa at the Wanderers on Thursday, January 6.
South African captain Dean Elgar shined with the willow in the 240-run chase, scoring an unbeaten 96 off 188 balls and powered his side to a series-levelling win in the five-match series.
In the second Test, KL Rahul led India in the absence of regular skipper Virat Kohli, who didn’t play the game due to back spasms.
However, Team India head coach Rahul Dravid is hopeful of seeing Kohli return for the third and final Test slated to be played in Cape Town from January 11 to 15.
“Virat Kohli should be fine from all accounts, he should be fine. He has had the opportunity to run around a little bit, he has had the opportunity to test it a little bit.
“Hopefully with a couple of net sessions in Cape Town, he should be good to go. Everything I am hearing and just having a chat with him, he should be good to go in four days time,” said Dravid during the virtual press conference.
When asked about his take on India’s batting performance in the series so far, the cricketer-turned-coach said: “It has been challenging wickets for both the teams, South Africa’s fourth innings was probably their best with the bat. Yes, as a batting unit we can look to seize a few key moments and when we get partnerships, we can look to make them longer. It was challenging in the first innings but we could have gotten 55-60 runs more which could have made a huge difference.”
“Certainly, we would like to bat a little better. Maybe the guys who got starts could have converted them into 100s. That was the difference in the first game, we had Rahul scoring century for us and we ended up on the winning side. Dean Elgar scored 96 in this Test and South Africa ended up on the winning side,” he added.
