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Xtra Time Web Desk: The Men’s Selection Committee met in New Delhi on Thursday to pick Team India’s squad for the upcoming all-format tour of South Africa. The Indian team will participate in three T20Is, three ODIs and two Test matches. During the tour, India A will also play two four-day matches against South Africa A and one inter-squad three-day match.

Captain Rohit Sharma has decided to take a break from the white ball series like Virat Kohli. Both will join the squads ahead of test series. Rohit, who is currently holidaying with his family has turned down Board of Control for Cricket in India’s request to lead the T20 side in South Africa. Despite Rohit not making himself available for T20I series, he will be leading the Indian team in forthcoming T20 World Cup 2024 in West Indies and USA.

What transpired the selectors and board officials in requesting Rohit to lead in T20 format again is his leadership in the recently concluded ICC Cricket World Cup 2024. He led India to 10 games in a row in the 50-over World Cup before losing out to Australia in the final. Last year, India had also reached the semifinal of the 2022 World Cup held in Australia, where they lost out to England by 10 wickets.

The ODI squad sees the inclusion of Sanju Samson, while Rajat Patidar, having recovered from an injury, secures a spot in the Indian ODI team. Surya Kumar Yadav has been rested for ODI series due because of workload management. Meanwhile, in the Test arena, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul makes a comeback, with no places allocated for Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara.

Jasprit Bumrah will spearhead the pace bowling attack which also has the Mohammed Shami (subject to fitness), Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Prasidh Krishna and Mukesh Kumar. Ravindra Jadeja, and R Ashwin are the only specialist spinners. In the T20 setup, Kuldeep Yadav has been selected, along with Deepak Chahar signalling a strategic move in the bowling composition.

Here are the three squads for the upcoming tour to South Africa:

India’s squad for 2 Tests: 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, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Mohd. Shami*, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna. 

India’s squad for 3 T20Is: 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, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Deepak Chahar.

India’s squad for 3 ODIs: 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.