BCCI announced 21 members strong India’s squad for the tour of South Africa 2021.
India’s Test squad for the tour of South Africa: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced a 21 member strong Indian squad touring South Africa for the three matches Test and ODI series. The tour of Rainbow nation is slated to commence on 26th December with a three matches test series.
In the major development, the BCCI has awarded test vice-captaincy to opener batsman Rohit Sharma, following former vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane’s poor run in the format. Rahane has been picked in the squad as a player.
Hanuma Vihari has been named in the squad for South Africa after getting snubbed from the test squad facing New Zealand. Vihari has recently toured South Africa for India A tour for two unofficial test matches.
Key test players in Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Shardul Thakur, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have returned to the format. Rahul was ruled out of the New Zealand test series due to a niggle while the other aforementioned were given rest to manage their workload.
The selectors have awarded Jayant Yadav and Shreyas Iyer a ticket for the tour of South Africa after their fruitful run in the test series against New Zealand.
The cricket board has also informed that Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman GIll, Axar Patel and Rahul Chahar have sustained injuries, hence are out of the selection.
The following players were not available for selection due to injuries and are currently undergoing rehabilitation: Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, Axar Patel, Rahul Chahar,” said BCCI in an official release.
Moreover, the BCCI has also handed over the ODI captaincy to Rohit Sharma. He will now remain the permanent face for India in the limited-overs format replacing Virat Kohli.
“The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI & T20I teams going forward,” read the statement from BCCI.
India’s Squad for South Africa Test Series:
Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma(vc), Mayank Agarwal, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Umesh Yadav, Hanuma Vihari, Ishant Sharma, Rishabh Pant(wk), KL Rahul, Wriddhiman Saha(wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Mohd. Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj.
Standby Players: Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Arzan Nagwaswalla.
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