SA vs IND: India ODI Squad Announced. Who is New IND ODI Captain?

India ODI Squad: In a big breaking news, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have announced an 18-member Team India squad for the upcoming three-match ODI series against South Africa. In the absence of Rohit Sharma due to his left hamstring injury, KL Rahul has been appointed as the ODI captain while right-arm speedster Jasprit Bumrah named his deputy for the Proteas tour. India is scheduled to play three ODI matches in South Africa on 19, 21 and 23 January, 2022 respectively.

SA vs IND: India ODI Squad Announced. Who is New IND ODI Captain?

After getting ruled out for the three-match Test series against South Africa, full-time ODI captain Rohit Sharma hasn’t completely recovered from his hamstring injury and the selectors do not want to rush him, thus KL Rahul has been named as the stand-in skipper for the South Africa ODIs. The duo of Venkatesh Iyer and Ruturaj Gaekwad has been rewarded for phenomenal performances in the recently concluded edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, with call-ups to the national ODI squad. Also, Ravichandran Ashwin has made a comeback in the ODI squad for the first time since 2017.

India ODI Squad for South Africa Tour

KL Rahul (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Y Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, J Bumrah (VC), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini.

TEAM : KL Rahul (Capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Y Chahal, R Ashwin, W Sundar, J Bumrah (VC), Bhuvneshwar Kumar,Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj

— BCCI (@BCCI) December 31, 2021

#TeamIndia for three ODI series against South Africa announced.

The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Mr KL Rahul as Captain for the ODI series as Mr Rohit Sharma is ruled out owing to an injury.

WATCH the PC live here – https://t.co/IVYMIoWXkq

— BCCI (@BCCI) December 31, 2021

Related: India Win First Ever Centurion Test – Cricket Twitter Reacts

India vs South Africa

Chief selector Chetan Sharma while addressing virtual media conference was asked a lot of questions regarding the recent controversy between Virat Kohli and the BCCI. During the pre-tour press conference before the South Africa Test series, Virat came up with some shocking revelations where he clearly stated that he was informed just one-and-a-half before the Test team announcement by the chief selector that he will no longer be the ODI captain. The Test skipper also stated that no one from the BCCI actually asked him not to quit T20I captaincy.

Related: Virat Kohli Press Conference before South Africa Tour

However, in reply, Chetan Sharma has now clarified that each of the five selectors including BCCI President Sourav Ganguly were quite shocked when Virat announced his decision to step down as the T20I captain just before the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in the UAE and the selection committee members advised him to rethink about the same. The former Indian fast bowler also stated that the selectors actually insisted Virat Kohli to continue as the T20I captain and advised him to discuss this big call possibly after the T20 World Cup.

“With the World Cup coming up, that news [of Kohli wanting to step down as T20I captain] surprised us. Everyone in the meeting said that you should think about your decision and we can speak about it after the World Cup. We all felt that it will affect the World Cup,” said Chetan Sharma in the press conference.

“Rohit and Virat are absolutely fine and they plan things together very well to take Indian cricket forward. They eat together, sit together, plan together. I request you all to keep all controversies aside in 2021 and support Team India in 2022. I called Virat Kohli as soon as our selection meeting was over. I informed him that we want one white-ball captain. He agreed with us,” he further added.