Cricket: India announce squads for South Africa tour
India have announced the squads for the all-format tour of South Africa, starting December 10.
KL Rahul will lead the ODI squad against the Proteas in the absence of several regulars, including Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya among others.
In the longer format, India will be back to full strength, bolstered by the returns of Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and Jasprit Bumrah after their long absence from Test cricket.
Rohit Sharma will be back to lead the side for the Test along with Virat Kohli, with both players requesting a break from the white-ball leg of the tour.
India’s squad for T20Is: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Deepak Chahar.
India’s squad for ODIs: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma, Rajat Patidar, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (C)(wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar.
India’s squad for Tests: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Mohd. Shami (subject to fitness), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna.
The return of Rahul and Iyer means there’s no place in the squad for red-ball veterans Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara, both of whom featured in India’s XI for the World Test Championship Final against Australia in June.
Mohammed Shami also returns to the Test side but his inclusion is subject to fitness as he is currently undergoing medical treatment.
While Yashasvi Jaiswal and Mukesh Kumar, who made their Test debut during the West Indies tour, hold onto their place.