After breaking his right middle finger while batting in the opening innings of the first Test, Wiaan Mulder will miss the remainder of the Sri Lanka series. The team now includes Matthew Breetzke as a substitute.
Mulder was injured on the fifth ball he faced, the first ball of the 27th over. As Mulder defended, Lahiru Kumara got one to nip back into him, and his fingers seemed to slam into the bat handle. He faced two more balls before retiring injured after receiving treatment on the field during what turned into a ten-minute over. Before deciding to stop, he left the final ball of that over out and kept the first one, a yorker, out. After South Africa lost Temba Bavuma for the ninth wicket, he stepped out to bat and had to face five more balls to end at nine not out. A dance down the track to smash Dhananjaya de Silva for six was part of that.
During the lunch break, doctors brought Mulder for an x-ray, which confirmed the fracture. His replacement in the field was Ryan Rickelton. With Keshav Maharaj as the sole specialist spinner, they have three seamers in Gerald Coetzee, Marco Jansen, and Kagiso Rabada. If necessary, Aiden Markram can bowl offspin.
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