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Team India is set to challenge South Africa in the three-match ODI series from January 19 at the Boland Park in Poland. KL Rahul, the prolific opening batsman will lead the team after Rohit Sharma failed to recover from a hamstring injury. However, this will be the first instance in the last four years when Virat Kohli will not be donning the captaincy cap for the team and will play as a batsman.
During the pre-match virtual press conference, the skipper KL Rahul revealed that in Rohit's absence he will open the batting with most likely Shikhar Dhawan accompanying him. When questioned about his captaincy, he informed that "I have learned a lot from both MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, I am human, I will make mistakes along the way but I will learn and get better. That's where my mind is at. The ODI series is a fresh start and it is a great opportunity for me to lead the side."
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He also showered a lot of praise over the former skipper by saying, "We have gone to every country and won a series, so he has done a lot of things right and he has already set a standard for all of us." Notably, Rahul is the 26th cricketer to lead India in an ODI match and he will be the first one to make his ODI captaincy debut in South Africa.
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In the next Test in Johannesburg, he got the honour to lead India as regular captain Virat Kohli was ruled out due to an upper back spasm. The right-hander scored fifty in India's first innings but the visitors lost the match. Rahul ended up in the Test series as India's top scorer in the series and was one of the very few batsmen who could put some challenge to the South Africa bowling attack.