The Indian team will host the South African side for a series of three ODI matches. The Proteas had recently traveled to India for a series of three Test matches and lost all the three matches, including two of them with a margin of an innings.
Now the focus shifts to 50-over matches, as India will be coming off a 3-0 defeat in the format against New Zealand, while South Africa has won the first two ODI matches against Australia and are in the peak of the form under new captain Quinton de Kock. The Indian squad for the upcoming series will be picked by the new selection panel headed by Sunil Joshi and will be announced on Friday, March 6.
Before that, Team COC presents the Predicted India squad for the South Africa ODI series.
Rohit Sharma is expected to miss this series as he recovers from his hamstring injury, but in good news, Shikhar Dhawan has recovered from his shoulder trouble and will be available for selection. KL Rahul and Prithvi Shaw may be picked as opening options alongside Dhawan for this ODI series.
Virat Kohli is expected to play this series as well, and he would want to use this home series to get his form back, which has seen him going without a century in international cricket for more than 20 innings.
Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey did amazingly well in New Zealand's limited-overs tour and can be expected to be included in the squad as well. Rishabh Pant has been given a long rope by the previous selection committee and it is expected that he will be treated the same way this time as well.
Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, and Ravindra Jadeja might be the picks for the spinners against South Africa, who have struggled against tweakers on Indian pitches.
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Meanwhile, it is expected that all-rounder Hardik Pandya and fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar might make their comebacks to the Indian team after playing in the DY Patil T20 Cup and showing their match fitness to the trainers.
Jasprit Bumrah and Navdeep Saini are also possibilities for the ODI series given that Bumrah needs match practice to get his rust off and Saini was just too good for India and his newly revealed batting potential gives India an option in the death overs.
The first ODI will be played on March 12 in Dharamshala.
COC Predicted Team India squad:
Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul (WK), Virat Kohli (C), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Prithvi Shaw, Rishabh Pant (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav
