India announce their touring team for South Africa; KL Rahul will captain the ODIs and Suryakumar Yadav the T20Is.

India’s teams for the multi-format South Africa series, which consists of two Tests, three ODIs, and numerous T20Is, have been revealed. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are not included in the white-ball squads; the BCCI has confirmed that they “had requested the Board for a break from the white-ball leg of the tour.” In addition, the board stated that Mohammed Shami, who had finished with a record-breaking performance in India’s ODI World Cup runners-up finish, is “currently undergoing medical treatment and his availability is subject to fitness.”

KL Rahul will captain the ODIs, while Suryakumar Yadav has been given an extension as the captain of the Twenty20 internationals after being selected to captain the home team against Australia due to Hardik Pandya’s forced absence due to an ankle injury.

With the exception of Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, and Prasidh Krishna—all of whom have paved the way for Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, and Kuldeep Yadav—who were rested for the Australia series after the domestic World Cup, the 17-member T20I squad looks similar to the one that is currently playing at home. Jadeja is now designated as Suryakumar’s assistant.

With no significant 50-over competition planned until the 2025 Champions Trophy, India has made significant changes to their ODI team, giving potential young players Sai Sudharsan and Rinku Singh their first-ever call-ups while resting Gill, Suryakumar, and Ishan Kishan. In the meantime, Yuzvendra Chahal and Sanju Samson, two of India’s most prominent absences from their World Cup roster, have been added. As they have only appeared in the same XI three times since the 2019 ODI World Cup, the renowned spin duo of Kuldeep and Chahal will now have another chance at an ODI reunion.

Rajat Patidar, who is still uncapped, was also called up for the first time in ODI history during a series played at home against the same opponents last year. He is back on the ODI team. One late addition to the Australia series roster, Deepak Chahar, has been selected in both white-ball squads. Axar and Avesh have been included in the 50-over squad, although they were both left off the T20I roster.

India’s T20I squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Deepak Chahar

India’s ODI squad: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma, Rajat Patidar, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (C) (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar

Rohit Sharma will be the test team’s captain.

Jasprit Bumrah, along with Rohit and Kohli, will play in the two Test matches after choosing not to participate in the white-ball leg of the series. Bumrah, who has been appointed as Rohit’s deputy, didn’t participate in an international red-ball match until 2022, when India lost to England by seven wickets in the postponed fifth Test in Birmingham. Due to a painfully recurrent back issue, he was sidelined, but with his return, India will be able to unleash the formidable trio of Bumrah, Siraj, and Shami against the Proteas.

The World Test Championship final lineup that India fielded earlier this year included veteran Ajinkya Rahane; Rahul and Iyer have since returned to the team. Iyer was kept out of the IPL and WTC finals earlier this year because of a recurrent back injury. He had also missed the Ahmedabad Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier in the year. Even though that had given Rahane more opportunities, his return as the first-choice player meant that, despite being India’s vice captain during the West Indies tour in July of this year, he had to accept the loss.

Yashasvi Jaiswal has kept his place after smashing a century on his Test debut in the aforementioned West Indies series. The backup opener is Ruturaj Gaikwad, and the backup wicketkeeper is Kishan. The only players selected for each of the three squads are Iyer, Ruturaj, and Mukesh Kumar.

India’s Test squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Mohammed Shami*, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna

Leading India A in four-day matches is KS Bharat.

Not included in the starting lineup is KS Bharat, who competed in the WTC final before sitting out the Caribbean tour. But before the Test series starts, he will captain the A team in the two four-day matches that are set for December 11–14 and December 26–29. Some of the best players, including Sarfaraz Khan, Devdutt Padikkal, Sudharsan, Tilak, and Dhruv Jurel, are in the roster for the domestic matches.

Subject to fitness, Bengaluru’s prolific run-scorer Abhimanyu Easwaran has been included, along with fast bowler Harshit Rana, seamers Vidwath Kaverappa, Akash Deep, and Tushar Deshpande, as well as left-arm spinners Sourabh Kumar and Manav Suthar.

India A squad for the first four-day match: Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran*, Devdutt Padikkal, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Sarfaraz Khan, KS Bharat (C) (wk), Dhruv Jurel, Shardul Thakur, Pulkit Narang, Sourabh Kumar, Manav Suthar, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Vidhwath Kaverappa, and Tushar Deshpande

India A squad for the second four-day match: Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran*, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, KS Bharat (C) (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Akash Deep, Vidhwath Kaverappa, and Navdeep Saini

In addition, the Indian squad will compete in a three-day intersquad match from December 20 to 22 in between the two four-day matches.

India squad for inter-squad three-day match: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Abhimanyu Easwaran*, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, KS Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Pulkit Narang, Harshit Rana, Shardul Thakur, Sourabh Kumar, Manav Suthar, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini

India’s 2023–24 South Africa tour schedule

India’s visit will start on December 10 with the first Twenty20 International in Durban. On December 12 and 14, the country will play its second and third games in Johannesburg and Gqeberha. Prior to the second and third ODIs in Gqeberha and Paarl on December 19 and 21, Johannesburg will also host the opening match of the ODI series on December 17.

Before the teams go to Cape Town for the New Year’s Test from January 3 to 7, Centurion will host the Boxing Day event from December 26 to 30. This one will be India’s second assignment in the 2023–25 World Team Tour cycle, following their 2-0 victory in the two-Test series played in the Caribbean in July.

India A tour of South Africa 2023