The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India’s Test squad for the upcoming tour to South Africa on Wednesday.
Virat Kohli will continue to lead the team while Rohit Sharma has replaced Ajinkya Rahane as vice-captain.
Rahane, who has been struggling to get runs of late, was also named in the 18-member squad for the three-match Test series in the Rainbow Nation.
Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami – the two pacers who were rested for the red-ball fixtures against New Zealand – have made their comeback to the squad for the all-important tour of South Africa.
Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, Axar Patel and Rahul Chahar were not considered for selection due to their respective injuries and will now join the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru for rehabilitation.
Kohli and Co. will play three matches of the ICC World Test Championship series, starting with the Boxing Day Test in Centurion, followed by two subsequent games set to be played in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
India’s Test squad for South Africa tour:
Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj.
Standby Players: Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla.
