IND vs SA: Virat Kohli rejoins Team India ahead of 1st Test against South Africa
PTC News Desk: Star India batter Virat Kohli has rejoined the team in South Africa ahead of the Boxing Day Test at Centurion against the Proteas, sources said.
Earlier this week, a BCCI source stated that Kohli returned to India for personal reasons and is now in contention to make his first on-field appearance since the World Cup final heartbreak last month on December 26.
The two-match Test series will be part of the World Test Championship cycle from 2023 to 25. India currently leads the WTC table with a win and a draw, giving them a total of 66.67 points percentage.
He will be an important figure for India because he was the country's leading run-scorer during the previous WTC cycle, with 932 runs from 30 innings, and he has already scored a century and a fifty in his side's two completed Tests against the West Indies to start the 2023-2025 cycle.
Virat has scored 557 runs at an average of 55.70 in seven Tests this year, including two centuries and a fifty. His highest possible score is 186.
The champion right-hander is also coming off a successful ICC Men's Cricket World Cup in which he scored 765 runs, including three centuries and six fifties, and was named Player of the Tournament.
Virat Kohli has a strong record against the red ball in South Africa, having scored two of his 29 Test centuries against the Proteas away from home. It is also one of only three countries where Kohli has a better average than 50, with his healthy average of 51.35 only surpassed by Australia and India. Virat has 719 runs in seven Tests in South Africa, including two centuries and three fifties.
During the previous World Cup cycle, India suffered a 2-1 series defeat in South Africa.
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