India had the bitter early taste of a treacherous SuperSport Park pitch - spiced up by overcast conditions in Centurion - on the first day of the Boxing Day Test against South Africa. The on-target South African pace attack dismantled the Indian batting in the first innings, and had them seven down for 176 runs by tea. (Scorecard | Live Blog | Full Coverage)
Kagiso Rabada has been the wrecker-in-chief so far, bagging five of the first seven wickets to fall with his ability to produce unplayable deliveries at will. The senior seamer was ably supported by his greener fast-bowling teammates Nandre Burger, Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee.
As KL Rahul and Shardul Thakur were looking to rebuild the Indian innings, Coetzee served up a nasty bouncer to Thakur, who copped the blow on his head. The team physio rushed in to provide medical attention to the all-rounder. The replays seemed to suggest that Thakur got a bit of swelling in the temple area too.
However, despite the bruised forehead, Thakur decided to play on, and resumed batting after some cold therapy. You can watch the video depicting Thakur's resilience below.
He was eventually dismissed for a quickfire 24 off 33 balls, and compiled 43 runs for the seventh wicket with Rahul.
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Earlier, at the toss, India captain Rohit Sharma confirmed that they have handed a debut to young pacer Prasidh Krishna, whereas Ravindra Jadeja was replaced by Ravichandran Ashwin in the playing XI for the first Test match.
The BCCI later announced that Jadeja faced upper back spasms on the morning of the Test match, that led to him sitting out of the game. The toss was delayed due to a wet outfield at SuperSport Park.
Teams:
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna.
South Africa: Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Temba Bavuma(c), Keegan Petersen, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Kagiso Rabada and Nandre Burger.
