The newly appointed white-ball captain Rohit Sharma has been ruled out of the three-match Test series against South Africa starting later this month. BCCI has named India A player Priyank Panchal as his replacement.
Rohit has suffered a hamstring injury while practicing at Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex and will miss all three Tests. This will be the second successive Test series that Rohit will miss. He was rested for the recently-concluded two-Test series against New Zealand at home. While he also missed the first two games of the Australia series last year. The 34-year-old is India’s highest scorer in Tests this year with 906 runs in 11 Tests at 47.68.
“Team India Test vice-captain Rohit Sharma sustained a left hamstring injury during his training session here in Mumbai yesterday. He has been ruled out of the upcoming 3-match Test series against South Africa. Priyank Panchal will replace Rohit Sharma in the Test squad,” the BCCI said in a statement.
Priyank Panchal, who plays for Gujarat, led India A during the recent unofficial Test series in South Africa. He hit 96 in the first unofficial Test against South Africa A. The 31-year-old has been a consistent performer in the domestic circuit. In his first-class cricket so far, Panchal has scored 7011 runs, including 24 hundreds and 25 fifties. Panchal could be a handy opener at the top. It’ll be interesting to see if he gets a chance to showcase his talent on this tour.
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