Rohit Sharma replaces Virat Kohli as India's ODI captain as BCCI pick squad for SA tour

With India's tour of South Africa right around the corner, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have selected their 18-member squad for the tour. In a surprise move, the BCCI on Wednesday announced that going forward, Rohit Sharma will lead Team India in the ODI and T20I formats.

The tour will have three Test matches followed by three ODIs. The three-Test matches were scheduled to start December 17, however, after considering the risks and health of the players on priority because of the 'Omicron' COVID-19 variant, the BCCI decided to postpone the tour to start from December 26, 2021, till January 15, 2022.

Virat Kohli will be the captain for the Test matches with Rohit Sharma as his deputy. But in a surprise move, Rohit Sharma was named the captain of the three-match ODI series ahead of Virat Kohli. It is unknown whether it is because Kohli is being rested or whether it was a strategical move after the Test skipper had announced he will be giving up his captaincy for the T20 national team and Royal Challengers Bangalore captaincy as well to concentrate more on ODI and Test as well as his performances. The ODI squad has not been announced yet by the BCCI.

India's Test Squad for the tour of South Africa

Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma(VC), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj

Stand by players: Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla.

South Africa's Squad for Test Series vs India

Earlier on Tuesday Cricket South Africa had announced their 21 member squad for the upcoming Test series. CSA have selected the same core group that won their tour of the West Indies earlier this year in June. They also chose to bring back some experienced and in-form players in with the likes of Kagiso Rabada, Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortje all being called up.

South Africa's Test Squad

Dean Elgar (captain), Temba Bavuma (vice-captain), Quinton de Kock (wicket-keeper), Kagiso Rabada, Sarel Erwee, Beuran Hendricks, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj. Lungi Ngidi, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Anrich Nortje, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen. Kyle Verreynne, Marco Jansen, Glenton Stuurman. Prenelan Subrayen, Sisanda Magala, Ryan Rickelton, Duanne Olivier.

Image: BCCI