The Indian cricket squads for the South Africa Tour have been announced. The BCCI men's Selection Committee met in New Delhi on Thursday to pick Team India's squad for the upcoming all-format tour of South Africa. The Indian team will participate in three T20Is, three ODIs and two Test matches. During the tour, India A will also play two four-day matches against South Africa A and one inter-squad three-day match. Two stars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are not part of the Indian ODI and T20I squads for the South Africa Tour. The BCCI has revealed why the duo is not part of the squads.
A lot was riding on what the white-ball squads would look like as it would give an idea about Indian cricket team's white-ball plans going ahead. There were reports that Rohit Sharma would lead in the T20Is against South Africa, but BCCI's press release had something else to say.
The reason behind Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli missing the T20Is and ODIs is not any injury. The duo voluntarily told BCCI that they wanted to take a break from the white-ball leg of the South Africa Tour, according to a BCCI release.
"Rohit Sharma and Mr Virat Kohli had requested the Board for a break from the white-ball leg of the tour. Mohd. Shami is currently undergoing medical treatment and his availability is subject to fitness. Mr Abhimanyu Easwaran's availability is subject to fitness," The BCCI said in a release.
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*, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna.
India's squad for 3 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 3 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 A squad for the 1st four-day match: Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran*, Devdutt Padikkal, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Sarfaraz Khan, KS Bharat (C)(wk), Dhruv Jurel, Shardul Thakur, Pulkit Narang, Sourabh Kumar, Manav Suthar, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Tushar Deshpande.
India A squad for 3rd four-day match: Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran*, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, KS Bharat (C)(wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Akash Deep, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Navdeep Saini.