Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India's squads for the tour of South Africa next month. In the absence of an injured Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav will continue to lead India in T20Is whereas KL Rahul will assume captaincy in the ODI format.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are still missing from the T20I squads. As reported earlier by Sports Tak, both of them had requested BCCI for a one-month break. Jasprit Bumrah has been rested for the white-ball series as well.
From the second-string squad that is playing in the five-T20I series against South Africa, newbies Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, and Jitesh Sharma have retained their place. After a 21-run last over against Australia in the third T20I, Prasidh Krishna has been dropped from the squad.
While Shreyas Iyer was named vice-captain of India’s T20I squad for the last two T20Is against Australia, Ravindra Jadeja has been named Suryakumar’s deputy.
Axar Patel made way for Jadeja in the T20I squad. Patel was impressive in one of the first three T20Is in the ongoing five-T20I series against Australia. In the first T20I, he remained wicketless and struggled to score in the slog overs of the run chase. His struggle to rotate the strike led to Australia taking the game to the last ball. He was economical in the second game and picked up a wicket as well. In the third T20I, he was expensive in the penultimate over against Matthew Wade as 22 runs were scored. India lost the match off the last ball of the over as Australia kept the run chase alive.
India’s T20I squad:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Deepak Chahar.
India tour of South Africa schedule
1st T20I – December 10, 2023 at 9:30 PM IST in Kingsmead, Durban
2nd T20I – December 12, 2023 at 9:30 PM IST in St George’s Park, Gqeberha
3rd T20I – December 14, 2023 at 9:30 PM IST in New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
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