Prior to the Boxing Day Test match between the Proteas and the Indian red-ball team at Centurion, sources indicate that veteran batsman Virat Kohli has returned to the team in South Africa. A BCCI source earlier this week disclosed that Kohli returned to India for personal reasons. Following the heartbreaking World Cup final last month, he is now eligible to make his first on-field appearance on December 26. The two-game Test series will be played as part of the 2023–25 World Test Championship cycle. Currently leading the WTC table with a total of 66.67 points percentage from wins and draws, is India. Being the country’s top run scorer in the previous edition of the IPL, he will be vital to India.
This year in seven Tests, Virat has scored 557 runs at an average of 55.70, with two centuries and a fifty. His best score is 186.
The champion right-hander is also coming off a prosperous ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup on home soil as he scored a whopping 765 runs, including three centuries and six fifties, claiming the Player of the Tournament award.
Virat has an excellent record against the red ball in South Africa, with the 35-year-old having scored two of his 29 Test centuries against the Proteas away from home. It is also one of only three countries where Kohli can boast an average greater than 50, with his healthy average of 51.35 only bettered in Australia and at home in India.