All eyes on Rohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav in warm-up vs South Africa

Rohit Sharma to lead BP XI v SA

Vizianagaram (AP): Rohit Sharma, who has been India's regular opener in the shorter formats of the game, will have his first stint at the top of the order in red-ball cricket when he leads Board President's (BP) XI against South Africa in the lone three-day tour game beginning today.

Rohit, who has been one of India's premier batsmen in the limited overs set-up, has been given the opportunity to cement his place in the Test side and become a permanent feature in all the three formats by moving him to the top of the order.

He will be challenged by Kagiso Rabada and company and will have a good taste of what he would be up against in the three-Test series which begins on October 2 in Visakhapatnam. The tour game will also prove to be a good opportunity for Umesh Yadav who has been inducted into the squad as a replacement for the injured Jasprit Bumrah.

The pacer has suffered a minor stress fracture in his lower back and was ruled out on Tuesday. Meanwhile, for the Proteas, regular skipper Faf du Plessis is back with the team and he would be raring to come out and make a statement after he was ignored for the T20I series as Cricket South Africa has decided to try Quinton de Kock in the shorter format.

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