The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced India’s squad for the upcoming tour to South Africa. Virat Kohli will lead the side while Rohit Sharma has been named as the vice-captain. Ajinkya Rahane, who is going through the poor run with the bat of late, has been named in the squad but has been relieved of vice-captaincy.
Senior players who were rested for the New Zealand series have made their comeback for the South Africa series. The likes of KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammad Shami. Hanuma Vihari, who is currently playing Test series against South Africa A, has made his comeback to the Test team. Vihari has been in terrific form, scoring three fifties in the series so far. The right-handed batsman was surprisingly left out for the test series against New Zealand.
Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel will miss the series due to their respective injuries. Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, and Arzan Nagwaswalla have been named as standby players. All 4 players are part of the India A squad and are in SA.
India tour of South Africa 2021-22 schedule
1st Test (December 26-30): Centurion
2nd Test (January 03-07): Johannesburg
3rd Test (January 11-15): Cape Town
1st ODI (January 19): Paarl
2nd ODI (January 21): Paarl
3rd ODI (January 23): Cape Town
Rohit Sharma replaces Virat Kohli as ODI captain
BCCI on Wednesday announced that Rohit Sharma will be India’s ODI and T20I captain. The opening batter, who captained India in the T20Is against New Zealand, will now take up the full-time responsibility as India’s captain in limited-overs cricket. Rohit will take over from Virat Kohli in the 50-over format, from the three-match ODI series in South Africa.
Virat Kohli, who took over as India’s limited-overs captain from MS Dhoni in 2017, led the team in 95 ODIs. The 33-year-old has won 65 games out of 95 with a win percentage of 68. Kohli led India in the Champions Trophy and the 2019 World Cup. But he failed to win the trophy as a captain. India lost in the final to Pakistan in the 2017 Champions trophy. While the Men in blue were eliminated in the semi-final of the 50-over showpiece event.