Virat Kohli led Indian cricket team head to South Africa

Virat Kohli-led Indian red-ball cricket squad departed for South Africa to lock horns with Proteas in the three-match Test series.

India and South Africa will lock horns in the Test series which gets underway from December 26. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on December 16 shared pictures of the departure of the Indian Test squad.

"All buckled up. South Africa bound," BCCI tweeted.

Rohit Sharma was ruled out of the upcoming three-match Test series against South Africa after a hamstring injury during the practice session.

Kohli said Team India will miss Rohit's abilities in the upcoming tour of South Africa.

"Will miss his abilities a lot. He's proven in England already that he's really worked his Test game out, and the opening partnership was very important for us to play in that series. Obviously, with his experience and skill, we will miss those qualities," said Virat Kohli in a virtual conference.

"That said, it's an opportunity for Mayank [Agarwal] and KL [Rahul] to step up and solidify that start for us and make sure the good work is carried on in this series," he added.

Rohit will be missing the upcoming Test series after the hamstring injury and Priyank Panchal was named as the replacement. Last week, Rohit was handed the reins of ODIs along with the T20I formats.

India's squad for South Africa Tests: Virat Kohli (Captain), Priyank Panchal, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj.

(ANI)