Maharaj ruled out of second Zimbabwe Test, Mulder to captain South Africa
Stand-in captain Maharaj suffered a left groin strain while batting in the second innings of the first Test, Muthusamy will replace him in the team
ESPNcricinfo staff
02-Jul-2025 • 14 hrs ago
Keshav Maharaj led South Africa in Tests for the first time • AFP/Getty Images
Stand-in South Africa captain Keshav Maharaj has been ruled out of the second Test against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo because of a left groin strain. Allrounder Wiaan Mulder will lead the side in the second Test starting July 6.
Maharaj captained South Africa in Test cricket for the first time after Temba Bavuma did not recover from the hamstring strain he suffered in the World Test Championship final. Maharaj returned a match-haul of four wickets with his left-arm spin apart from scoring a half-century in the second innings. He sustained the injury while batting on the third day of the first Test, which South Africa won by a whopping 328 runs.
This will be Mulder's first time of leading a team in first-class cricket. He has made 87 red-ball appearances, 20 of them in Tests. His only experience of captaining the team came for Leicestershire in the quarter-final of the One Day Cup 2022 against Kent. Mulder is coming off a productive match, scoring his Test best of 147 in the second innings to follow his four-wicket haul in the first innings.
Fellow left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy has been named Maharaj's replacement for the next Test while Lungi Ngidi, originally set to join the squad ahead of the game, has been released. Maharaj was not part of the T20I tri-series to follow, with New Zealand being the third team.