India is playing South Africa in the Boxing Day Test in Centurion from Sunday for the Freedom Trophy. Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bat. In the process, he has surpassed Mohammad Azharuddin.
India is engaged in the opening Test, which happens to be a Boxing Day affair, against South Africa for the 2021-22 Freedom Trophy at the Centurion Park from Sunday. It has been a brilliant start from the Indian batters so far. And, it all started after skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bat.
As Kohli made the right call, it was his fourth successive toss win across formats. Meanwhile, he scripted a significant record in the process. It happened to be his 30th toss win in the format, which came in his 68th Test as skipper. As a result, he surpassed a legendary former Indian skipper.
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Kohli has now bettered the toss-winning performance by Mohammad Azharuddin, who had won 29 in 47 Tests. At number three is fellow legendary former skipper MS Dhoni, who had won 26 tosses in 60 Tests. Notably, Kohli is already the most successful Indian skipper in the format, winning 39 in 67 Tests.
Kohli is followed by Dhoni, who won 27 in 60, while another former legendary Indian skipper and the current Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Sourav Ganguly, is third, with 21 wins from 49. On the other hand, Azharuddin has helped India win 14 out of the 47 he has led in.
Match summary
Winning the toss and opting to bat, it has been a commendable start by the openers. While Mayank Agarwal scored 60 before being trapped leg-before by pacer Lungi Ngidi, Cheteshwar Pujara's horror run continued as he departed for an unfortunate duck to the same man. Nonetheless, fellow opener KL Rahul is batting past 60, while Kohli is duly supporting him.
Brief scores: India 157/2 (Mayank- 60; Rahul- 68*; Ngidi- 2/35) vs SA.