The highly-anticipated two-match Test series between India and South Africa is all set to get underway on December 26 at SuperSport Park in Centurion.

The Test series will mark KL Rahul’s comeback to red-ball cricket after an injury lay-off. Rahul made a return to the ODI side in the Asia Cup earlier this year, but was forced to miss the WTC final in June as well as the Test series against West Indies in July after the injury during IPL 2023.

It seems that Rahul will perform a new role on his return to the Test side. He is donning the keeping gloves in the ODI format for quite a while and head coach Rahul Dravid on Sunday (December 24) all but confirmed that the 29-year-old will retain the role during the Test series against South Africa.

Addressing the media ahead of the Boxing Day Test, Dravid said KL Rahul is confident of his glovework behind the stumps in the longest format of the game.

"It's an exciting challenge. It's an opportunity for him to do something different. With Ishan unavailable, we had a couple of keepers to choose from. Rahul is very confident about giving it a go. We understand that he hasn't done that quite often (in longest format), but he has done it in fifty overs, and even that is tough,” Dravid told reporters.

“He has done a lot of keeping in the past five-six months. One of the things here is that there is more pace bowling than spin, which will ease him into the role. We will see how it goes. It is nice to have someone like him, someone who has the ability with the bat and keep,” he added.

KL Rahul recently led the Indian team to a 2-1 ODI series win over South Africa. He also kept wickets during the 50-over fixtures.

Ahead of the ODI series, Rahul also said that he is open to playing the role of wicketkeeper in Tests during the red-ball series against South Africa.

"If that's the role the management sees me during Test matches, [I am] happy to do that," Rahul said in the pre-series presser.