India announce Test squad for South Africa tour, Rohit Sharma confirmed as ODI captain
India(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
The BCCI have announced the India squad for the upcoming Test series against South Africa. The board also revealed that Rohit Sharma will be the Indian ODI captain going forward. Notably, Rohit was recently named the T20I captain as well.
Speaking about the squad, there were concerns about the places of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane in the squad. However, both players have managed to retain their spots. Rahane though has been dropped as the vice-captain. The role will now be performed by Rohit Sharma. All senior players, who were rested for New Zealand are back in the squad.
Hanuma Vihari too has been recalled to the team. Shreyas Iyer, who had a stellar debut, has held on to his place, while Suryakumar Yadav, who was added to the squad for the New Zealand series after injury to KL Rahul has been sidelined.
Ravi Ashwin and Jayant Yadav are the two specialist spinners. Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj are the pace bowling options. Meanwhile, Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla have been named as standby players. The likes of Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, Axar Patel have missed out owing to injuries. The series gets underway on December 26 in Centurion.
India’s Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj.
Standby Players: Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla.
