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Guwahati: KL Rahul has been named stand-in captain for the upcoming ODI series against South Africa after regular captain Shubman Gill was ruled out due to a neck injury and Shreyas Iyer is recovering from a spleen injury suffered in Australia.
Rishabh Pant returns to the format as second wicketkeeper for the first time since August 2024. Pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj have been rested for the three-match series starting November 30.
Rahul last led India in 2023, when they beat South Africa 2-1 in an ODI series. In Gill’s absence, Yashasvi Jaiswal is expected to open the batting with Rohit Sharma.
Tilak Varma, Ravindra Jadeja and Ruturaj Gaikwad too have been added to the squad that toured Australia recently, with Axar Patel missing out. Gaikwad last played in the 50-over format for India in 2023. However, his player-of-the-series performance for India A against South Africa A, where he scored 202 runs including a century in the first game, may have pushed his case.
Jadeja was not considered for Australia and Patel, who played as the first choice left-arm spinner, lost the spot to the senior allrounder. With Shreyas unavailable, a middle-order spot has opened up for Varma, who scored 79 runs in the recent series against South Africa A in Rajkot. Varma has pretty much cemented his spot in the T20 squad but would be hoping to better his returns in the 50-over format.
Despite Pant’s inclusion, Dhruv Jurel has been able to retain his spot, indicating that there could be a scenario where he is picked as a pure batter.
With Hardik Pandya still undergoing rehab at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy kept his spot as India went with three specialist pacers in Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana and Prasidh Krishna.
Mohammed Shami remained out of favour despite performances in the domestic circuit.
All attention, however, will be on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli who return to the squad after the series in Australia. Rohit scored 202 runs in three matches Down Under, which was the highest by any player in the three-match contest. Kohli had registered consecutive ducks before firing a clinical 74* in the final ODI.
The series opens in Ranchi on November 30 before moving to Raipur and Visakhapatnam for the second and third ODIs on December 3 and December 6, respectively. India and South Africa will also play five T20Is.
Squad: KL Rahul (c/wk), Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel.
