The BCCI announced the Men in the Blue squad for the upcoming three-match ODI series against South Africa. KL Rahul will be leading the Indian team for the first time in ODIs after Rohit Sharma failed to get fit in time.
The first two ODIs will be played on January 19 and 21 in Paarl and the third match will take place on January 23 in Cape Town.
The BCCI selection committee has taken into consideration the performances in the Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament recently. This led to the inclusion of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Venkatesh Iyer in the Indian ODI squad.
"Bumrah is special, but Shami is currently India's number 1 Test bowler," says Aakash Chopra
While Ruturaj has played T20Is for India in Sri Lanka, Iyer received his maiden ODI call-up. He had made his T20I debut recently at home against New Zealand.
The selectors seemingly want to groom him as the next pace bowling all-rounder given that Hardik Pandya has taken a break from cricket and asked the selectors to not consider him for some time as he works on his fitness.
Virat Kohli was also included in the Indian squad along with veteran batter Shikhar Dhawan, who was ignored for the home T20I series against New Zealand, was included in the squad for the ODIs against South Africa. Jasprit Bumrah has been named the vice-captain of the Indian ODI side for this series.
Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, and Rishabh Pant have also been picked to bolster the batting. In the spin department, Yuzvendra Chahal has been joined by R Ashwin, who returns to the ODI side for the first time after 2017.
Also making a comeback is Washington Sundar, who was out due to a finger injury, but played in recent domestic white-ball tournaments in India.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, and Mohammed Siraj will make up the pace bowling unit with Bumrah leading them.
The BCCI chief selector Chetan Sharma also informed that pacer Mohammad Shami was rested as part of the workload management. Apart fromRohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Akshar Patel were unavailable due to their rehab from respective injuries.
Here is the Team India squad for the South Africa ODIs:
KL Rahul (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rishabh Pant (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj
