KL Rahul to lead India in South Africa ODI series, Pant and Jadeja back

KL Rahul will lead India in the absence of Shubman Gill, who continues to be sidelined with the neck injury sustained during the Eden Gardens Test match, for the upcoming three ODI series against South Africa.

Gill’s replacement for the series is Ruturaj Gaikwad, who last played an ODI in December 2023. Gaikwad has been impressive in domestic cricket of late, and most recently reeled off scores of 117, 68 not out and 25 for India A in their 2-1 series victory over South Africa A. but with Gill out, it looks as if Yashasvi Jaiswal will get a chance to add to his solitary ODI cap as opener alongside Rohit Sharma, who like Virat Kohli has been named for the series. 

Rishabh Pant makes his comeback to the ODI format after being named as the second wicketkeeper behind Rahul and could slot right into the 11 for the first match on November 30 in the absence of Shreyas Iyer, who is recovering from the spleen injury he suffered in Australia. The batsman who has been added to the squad in Iyer’s place is Tilak Varma who, like Gaikwad, has not played an ODI in nearly two years. 

 The allrounder Hardik Pandya is still sidelined with injury, and Ravindra Jadeja has been recalled for the first time since the ICC Champions Trophy. He was not part of the ODI squad for the tour of Australia. 

Pandya, who has not played for India since the Asia Cup in September, will turn out for Baroda in the domestic Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 in hopes of being match-ready for the T20I series beginning December 9.

From the ODI squad that was picked for the recent tour to Australia, Jasprit Bumrah has been rested and Mohammed Siraj’s name is also missing for this series. Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna and Harshit Rana are the three frontline quicks, backed by Nitish Reddy’s medium pace. Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar and Jadeja are the spin options. 

The three ODIs are on November 30 in Ranchi, December 3 (Raipur) and December 6 (Visakhapatnam) followed by five T20Is between December 9-19. 

India ODI squad: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (capt/wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel