Rohit Sharma is the new Indian white-ball captian as BCCI announces Test squad for South Africa tour

BCCI has named Rohit Sharma as the new ODI and T2OI captain and vice captain for the test side as the Selection Committee announces 18-men squad for test series against South Africa

The All India Selection Committee has announced a 18-men squad for the upcoming 3-match test series against South Africa starting from December 26, 2021 at Centurion.

Board has announced Rohit Sharma as the new full-time limited overs(ODI and T20I) captain with Virat Kohli continuing to lead the test team. Rohit has also been appointed as vice-captain for the longest format.

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Meanwhile, Ajinkya Rahane has somehow still managed to cement his place in the squad but is expected to face heavy contesting to make it to the playing-11 as new comers Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav are also included in the squad. Hanuma Vihari who’s currently amongst the runs with India A team also features the test squad.

India have suffered few blows in the name of all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel who misses out due to injuries. Jayant Yadav is set to be seen as the other spin option alongside the experienced Ravichandran Ashwin.

No surprises though with the pace bowling department as Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami makes return to the test side after being rested for NZ series at home.

Opener Shubman Gill will also not travel to South Africa as he got injured in the recent test series against the Blackaps. KL Rahul who was ruled out for NZ test series is back in the team with Shardul Thakur also making me a return to the test team.

KS Bharat, who was on for Rishabh Pant in the recent home series has been left out over the experienced campaigner Wriddhiman Saha as the 2nd wicket-keeping option.
Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla and Saurabh Kumar are the players to be taken as standby for the SA tour.

The test series is set to kick off from December 26 after being pushed due to COVID scare and will be followed by 3 ODIs as the the four-match T20I series already been removed from the earlier schedule.