Shubman Gill Out, KL Rahul Takes Over as ODI Captain; Kohli and Rohit Return for Home Series vs South Africa

Shubman Gill, the regular ODI captain of India, has been sidelined on Sunday and KL Rahul has been requested to replace him as skipper in the three matches series against South Africa which begins on November 30 at home. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will also be on home soil in the long-awaited first series since India played England in February-March series.

Also Read: Bride and Groom Suffer Burns After Hydrogen Balloons Explode During Haldi Ceremony

Gill, who sustained a whiplash on the same occasion as he was attempting to bat during the opening Test in Kolkata, had previously been rested because of the current second Test in Guwahati. Whether he will attend the five match T20I series against the Proteas, that will start on December 9, remains to be seen. The 25-year-old is in Mumbai where he is undergoing a medical test, which includes an MRI, in order to determine the damage.

The nominated vice-captain, Shreyas Iyer has also been eliminated in the series after he suffered an injury and underwent surgery in Australia. The two senior options being not available, the selectors were compelled to pick a stop-gap leader. Rishabh Pant had also been an option although not considered since he has not played an ODI in over a year, the last time was against Sri Lanka, and he was not part of the India Champions trophy squad this year. Instead, the selectors chose Rahul who has been the captain of India 12 times in the format.

In the absence of Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, the standby opener in Australia last month will play with Rohit in the company of a Ruturaj Gaikwad, who has been in a fine form in domestic and India A team, and who has been selected as a back up opener. India A, recently, won the series 2-1 which saw Gaikwad score 117, 68* and 25 in the same series, the last time he played in an ODI game was two years ago.

Also Read: India Squad for South Africa ODIs Live: KL Rahul Named Captain, Bumrah Rested

All rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who was omitted in the three ODIs in Australia with speculations that he is no longer in the scheme of things in the 2027 world cup, was back in the squad in place of axar patel, hardik pandya who has not played a match after September of 2021 has been left out of the contest.

Substitutes of other prominent players in the squad that toured the Australian include Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah, who were rested because they had played back-to-back Tests. Prasidh Krishna was selected in place and will play with Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh in the pace attack. Once again Mohammed Shami has been omitted.

Varun Chakravarthy was not selected in spin department and Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar were to head the department.

India's ODI squad for South Africa series: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (C) (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel.

Also Read: South Africa Refuses to Hand Over G20 Presidency to ‘Junior’ US Official