Johannesburg, Dec 16 (PTI) The Indian cricket team, led by skipper Virat Kohli, landed here on Thursday for the three-match Test series against South Africa, beginning on the Boxing Day at Centurion.

"Touchdown South Africa," the BCCI tweeted from its official twitter handle along with pictures of team members, including Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara, Shardul Thakur and Shreyas Iyer among others.

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The Kohli-led Test side had departed from Mumbai for the tour that includes three Tests followed by as many ODIs.

Star opener and newly-appointed white ball captain Rohit Sharma has been ruled out of the Test series against South Africa after sustaining a left hamstring injury during a training session in Mumbai.

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He was replaced by talented Gujarat opener Priyank Panchal.

While the series opener will be hosted by Centurion, the other two Tests will be played at Johannesburg and Cape Town respectively.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)