India captain KL Rahul believes that it is very important to have both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the team as their presence helps the team gain confidence. These comments come ahead of India's three-match ODI series against South Africa that will be Rohit and Virat's first home assignment since the ODI series against England in February, 2025.
Rahul feels that the dressing room stays positive with Rohit and Virat present in the team and pointed out how important it is for the team to win the upcoming one-day series as they are coming off an abysmal performance against South Africa where they ended up losing both the Tests.
"Their importance in any point is huge. They make the dressing room feel a lot more confident. Winning is the most important thing. We are trying to forget what happened a week ago," Rahul said at the pre-match press-conference.
Rahul's special praise for Virat
Rahul further went on to hail Virat for his remarkable ODI career and for achieving countless milestones in the format. He revealed how the 37-year-old helps players in the dressing room to improve by talking to them and added that he is quite an important part of the team.
"Taking singles is as important as hitting boundaries. That's something Virat has done so well in his career. In the dressing room, we talk with him about how to improve. He is the master of ODI cricket. Good to have him back in the dressing room," Rahul stated.
Rohit and Virat's performance against Australia
Meanwhile, both Rohit and Virat had recently featured in the three-match ODI series against Australia in October. While Rohit had finished as the series' top-scorer with 202 runs from three innings, Virat had gotten dismissed for ducks in the first two matches but went on to play a valiant knock of 74* in the third and final match. It remains to be seen how the duo will perform against the Proteas in the series that will begin from November 30 with the first game set to be held at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi.
India's squad for ODI series against South Africa: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (C) (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel.