India announces squads for 2023/24 South Africa tour
India vs South Africa (Source: Twitter)
India announced its squad for the tour of South Africa. The Indian T20I squad has the likes of Suryakumar Yadav (C), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Washington Sundar, and Deepak Chahar. Suryakumar will continue to lead India in the shorter format of the game.
The Indian ODI squad has the likes of KL Rahul (C), Sanju Samson, Yuzuvendra Chahal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rinku Singh, Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma, Shreyas Iyer, Rajat Patidar, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Mukesh Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, and Deepak Chahar. The senior players like Virat and Rohit will not be featuring in ODIs. In their absence, KL Rahul will be leading the side.
India’s Test squad has the likes of Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mukesh Kumar, Mohammad Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, and Mohammed Shami. The selection of Shami will happen subject to his fitness before the start of the first Test. Jasprit Bumrah is named the vice-captain of the Test side.
Big names missing in Tests and surprising selections
Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara, two prominent names in Test cricket over the years, are dropped from the Test squad. With the players aging, the Indian team has decided to move on to give chance to the youngsters. Rohit and Virat will be featuring in only two Tests in the entire tour. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is not being picked in any squad of India for the tour.
There have been some surprising picks in the squad. Mukesh Kumar, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Shreyas Iyer are the only players to make it to all the formats of the tour. Prasidh has been dropped from ODIs despite having performed well. The key pacers like Bumrah, Shami, and Siraj will be representing India in only one format. Jadeja is named the vice-captain of the T20I side.
