Rohit, K.L Rahul and Suryakumar to lead Test, ODI and T20I squads in South Africa

New Delhi, Nov 30 (IANS) India will have three different captains for three separate squads on their upcoming all-format tour of South Africa with Rohit Sharma leading in Tests, K.L. Rahul in One-Day Internationals and Suryakumar Yadav captaining the squad in the T20Is. 

With Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli requesting the Board for a break from the white-ball leg of the tour to be held in December-January and will get into action in the two Tests to be held on December 26-30 at Centurian and the second Test from January 3-7, 2024 at Cape Town.

Suryakumar Yadav will lead the T20I squad which will take on South Africa in three matches from December 10 to 14.

"The 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," BCCI Honorary Secretary Jay Shah informed in a release on Thursday.

While Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been selected only for the five-day matches, pacer Mohammed Shami, who is currently undergoing medical treatment, has been selected subject to recuperating and getting fit in time.

Interestingly, Shami has not been picked in the ODI squad, despite being the top wicket-taker in the recently concluded World Cup.

The Test squad includes Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ishan Kishan and Ruturaj Gaikwad will be the openers along with regular openers Rohit Sharma and Shubham Gill. Pacers Mukesh Kumar and Prasidh Krishna have been included in the bowling unit while including Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja as the two spinners.

Among the surprise inclusions in the white-ball squads, Sanju Samson has been included in the squad for the three ODI matches. Yuzvendra Chahal, who was ignored for the World Cup, is back in the 50-over while Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar and Arshdeep Singh have been picked in both the ODI and T20I squads.

During the tour, India A will also play two four-day matches against South Africa A and one inter-squad three-day match.

K.S Bharat will lead the India A team in the 1st four-day match and will include Abhimanyu Easwaran, who has been picked subject to fitness.

The tour will start with the T20Is on December 10 (Durban), Dec 12 (Gqeberha) and Dec 14 at Johannesburg. The ODIs will be played on December 17 (Johannesburg), Dec 19 (Gqeberha) and December 21 at Paarl.

Seniors' squads:

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.

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.

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:

Squad for 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 Inter-squad three-day match: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Abhimanyu Easwaran*, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, KS Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Pulkit Narang, Harshit Rana, Shardul Thakur, Sourabh Kumar, Manav Suthar, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini.

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.

Fixtures:

Dec 11-14: 1st four-day match

Dec 20-22: 2nd three-dau match

Dec 26-29: 3rd four-day match.

--IANS

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