India’s tour of SA 2021-22: Rohit Sharma new ODI captain; Rahul, Shardul return to Test team

Rohit Sharma named ODI captain, Test vice-captain for Indian Cricket Team

Rohit Sharma named ODI captain, Test vice-captain (©BCCI)

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has named Rohit Sharma as the new skipper of India Men’s ODI team. The swashbuckling opener who was earlier named the T20I skipper of the Indian team will now replace Virat Kohli also in the One-Day Internationals and completely take over the leadership of the white-ball format.

Rohit Sharma also replaced Ajinkya Rahane as deputy to Virat Kohli in the longest format from the upcoming South Africa tour starting December 26 (Boxing Day) with the first Test slated to be held in Centurion. It was scheduled to start from December 17 earlier.

In an official statement, BCCI tweeted, “The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr. Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI & T20I teams going forward.”

Rohit, who captained India in the T20I series against New Zealand will now have the three-match ODI series against South Africa as his first international assignment. The decision from the All-India Senior Selection Committee comes as a surprising decision for the Indian fans.

In September 2021, Virat Kohli had announced his decision to step down from the T20I captaincy role after the T20 World Cup. He had taken over the T20I captaincy from MS Dhoni at the beginning of 2017 and won his first series against England by 2-1.

However, his recent performance as a T20I skipper compelled the BCCI to go for an alternative and there was a strong candidature posed by Rohit Sharma. Kohli ended his T20I captaincy stint with 32 wins and 16 losses out of 50 matches he led the Indian team in. He now pulls curtains to his ODI captaincy tenure with 51 wins from 78 ODIs.

Indian squad for SA tour announced

Meanwhile, the BCCI also announced India’s squad for South Africa tour on Wednesday. There have been some changes in the squad. Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Shubman Gill have not been included in the SA tour due to injury concerns.

Regular pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami who were rested for the New Zealand series have been included in the squad. The pace department also gets a backup in the form of promising Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar and Arzan Nagwaswalla. While the 28-year-old Saurabh Kumar who plays for Uttar Pradesh cuts in as spin standby in the squad. Shardul Thakur also makes a comeback in the team after getting rested for the NZ series.

The batting department sees Rishabh Pant returning as a full-time wicketkeeper-batter. KL Rahul also returns to the Test squad after getting ruled out from the Test series against New Zealand.

India Test squad for SA tour:

Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj

Standby: Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla

India tour of South Africa 2021/22 Schedule

26-30 December, First Test, Centurion 3-7 January, Second Test, Johannesburg

11-15 January, Third Test, Cape Town

19 January, First one-day international, Paarl

21 January, Second one-day international, Paarl

23 January, Third one-day international, Cape Town

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