Ahmedabad: April 3, 2008 - India captain Anil Kumble passed a fitness test, won the toss and decided to bat first in the second Test against South Africa at the Saradar Patel Gujarat Stadium here on Thursday.

There was some doubt whether Kumble will take the field following a groin strain he suffered during the first Test at Chennai and he decided to wait till the morning of the match before being declared fit to play.

The home team made only one change from the eleven that drew the opening match of the three-Test rubber at Chennai, by bringing in all rounder Irfan Pathan in place of the injured Sachin Tendulkar.

This meant that both Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif will have to await their turn to take a slot in the middle order as the hosts decided to strengthen their bowling, with Pathan being the fifth frontline bowler and a handy lower order bat.

They also decided not to include young pacer Ishant Sharma who is also recovering from injuries to his toe and bowling hand finger.

South Africa retained their first Test eleven.

Teams:

India: Anil Kumble (Capt.), M S Dhoni (Vice-capt., wk), Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, R P Singh and S Sreesanth.

South Africa: Graeme Smith (Capt.), Ashwell Prince (Vice-capt.), Neil McEnzie, Hashim Amla. Jacques Kallis, A B De Villiers, Mark Boucher (wk), Morne Morkel, Paul Harris, Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini.

Umpires: Billy Doctrove and Tony Hill

Third umpire: Suresh Shastri

Match Referee Roshan Mahanama.