KL Rahul to lead India in ODI series against Proteas

The vice-captain will be Jasprit Bumrah as regular leader Rohit Sharma is out of the tour with an injury.


Indian opener KL Rahul will lead the ODI team in South Africa, national selectors said, after newly-appointed white-ball captain Rohit Sharma failed to recover from a hamstring injury.

Rohit was injured only days after being named India’s ODI captain in December, a promotion which completed his limited-overs captaincy takeover from Virat Kohli.

Star batsman Kohli, who stood down from the T20 job, was later sacked from the 50-over format leadership.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said Friday that Rohit was “ruled out owing to an injury” and announced the 18-man squad for the three-match series starting January 19 with pacer Jasprit Bumrah as vice-captain.  

As India regulars across all three formats of the game, both Rahul, 29, and Bumrah, 28, are seen by many as future leaders to replace Sharma, 33, and the 33-year-old Kohli, who still leads the national Test team. 

Squad:

KL Rahul (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Y Chahal, R Ashwin, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj

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Proteas cricket team

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