IND vs SA Test Series: India have announced their much-awaited squad for the tour of South Africa. The All-India Senior Selection Committee picked an 18-member squad on the 8th December and took some noteworthy calls.
In this post, we will have a look at the biggest talking points from India’s squad for the series against South Africa.
1) IND vs SA 2021-22: Test Vice-captaincy has been taken away from Ajinkya Rahane and given to Rohit Sharma
Ajinkya Rahane is going through a very phase in his career and many pundits believe that he has surpassed his best and India should start looking at more options for the middle-order. But, the Indian selectors have given him another chance and picked him in the squad. However, they have taken the vice-captaincy from him and given it to India’s limited-overs captain Rohit Sharma.
2) IND vs SA 2021-22: Hanuma Vihari is back in the squad
Many fans and pundits were unhappy with selectors decision to drop Hanuma Vihari for the home series against New Zealand, but they will happy and relieved now that selectors have once again shown their trust in Vihari and picked him for the important tour of South Africa.
3) IND vs SA 2021-22: Three key players are injured
Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill and Axar Patel have not been included in the squad because of injuries they picked after the recently concluded series against New Zealand.
4) The curious case of Ishant Sharma
Indian selectors seem to be having a lot of trust on Ishant Sharma despite his below average performances in the recent past. Even with Bumrah, Shami, Siraj and Yadav in the squad, selectors have picked Ishant and now it will be interesting to see if he plays ahead of any of these four bowlers mentioned above.
India’s Test squad: 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), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj.
Standby Players: Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla.
India tour of South Africa 2021-22 schedule:
1st Test (December 26-30): Centurion
2nd Test (January 03-07): Johannesburg
3rd Test (January 11-15): Cape Town
1st ODI (January 19): Paarl
2nd ODI (January 21): Paarl
3rd ODI (January 23): Cape Town
