India name Test squad for tour of South Africa

Rohit Sharma will captain India in both white-ball formats, cricket selectors said Wednesday, as they named the Test squad for this month’s South Africa tour. 

Known as “The Hitman” because of his powerful hundreds and six-hitting, Sharma took over the T20 side in November after India’s dismal showing at the World Cup in Dubai and led a series sweep at home against New Zealand.

The 34-year-old replaced Virat Kohli, who stepped down as short-format skipper in September citing his “immense workload”, and who has now yielded the ODI captaincy. 

Kohli will helm the three-Test series in South Africa starting December 26 — a tour delayed and shortened because of fears over the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India added Ajinkya Rahane to the squad despite the veteran batsman’s dry spell and absence from Monday’s thumping second Test win against New Zealand in Mumbai. 

Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, Axar Patel and Rahul Chahar were all out due to injury.

Test squad: 

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

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

Fixtures:

December 26-30, first Test, Centurion

January 3-7, second Test, Johannesburg

January 11-15, third Test, Cape Town