BCCI announces 15-man squad for the ODI series against South Africa

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the 15-man squad for the upcoming ODI series against South Africa. Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hardik Pandya have made their comeback after proving their match fitness by playing in the DY Patil T20 tournament. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma is not the part of the squad and it seems that he is yet to recover completely from his injury.

There are several changes to the squad that lost to New Zealand by a 3-0 margin. Shardul Thakur, Kedar Jadhav and Mayank Agarwal who didn’t have a great series in the Kiwi land have been left out. While Thakur was a little too expensive during the three-match series, Agarwal and Jadhav struggled to score runs from the outset. Mohammed Shami hasn’t been picked either and he might have been rested.

He was hit on the shoulder while batting during the second Test against New Zealand and hadn’t bowled much in the second innings of the game.

Shubman Gill finally gets a call-up

Prithvi Shaw, in the absence of Rohit Sharma, has managed to keep his place in the side. He scored 84 runs in the three ODIs in New Zealand and looked more impressive compared to his partner Agarwal during the series. The wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal continue to be part of the line-up. Though it remains to be seen if the duo will play together having troubled South Africa so much in the past.

Moreover, with Hardik Pandya returning to the squad, it will also be interesting to see if Ravindra Jadeja makes it to the playing XI. As far as the pace attack is concerned, Jasprit Bumrah who had a poor New Zealand series will be accompanied by Navdeep Saini apart from Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Amidst all the chaos around his position in the team, Rishabh Pant also has retained his place in the squad while KL Rahul continues to be the first choice wicket-keeper.

The first ODI between India and South Africa is set to be played in Dharamsala while the remaining two matches are scheduled to be played in Lucknow and Kolkata on March 15 and 18 respectively.

India’s ODI squad: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill.