India announce 18-man squad for S Africa Tests, Rohit named ODI captain

India announce 18-man squad for S Africa Tests, Rohit named ODI captain
Rohit Sharma. Source: IANS

Mumbai, Dec 8 (IANS) The Indian cricket team on Wednesday announced their 18-member squad for the upcoming 3-match Test series against South Africa starting from December 26.

The Test series will form a part of the new cycle of the ICC World Test Championship.

While Virat Kohli will lead the team, Rohit Sharma has been named as the new vice-captain of the Test team. However, under-pressure Ajinkya Rahane retained his place in the squad.

Meanwhile, the Chetan Sharma-led selection committee also announced Rohit Sharma will lead India's ODI & T20I teams going forward.

"The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI & T20I teams going forward," the BCCI said in a statement.

The statement also mentioned that Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, Axar Patel, Rahul Chahar were not available for selection due to injuries and are currently undergoing rehabilitation.

India's Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj.

Standby Players: Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla.