Injured Jadeja, Axar out as India name squad for SA Test series

Mumbai : The All-India Senior Selection Committee on Wednesday picked an 18-member squad for the upcoming 3-match Test series against South Africa starting from December 26.

The Test series will form a part of the new cycle of the ICC World Test Championship. The following players were not available for selection due to injuries and are currently undergoing rehabilitation: Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, Axar Patel, Rahul Chahar.

The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Rohit Sharma as the captain of the ODI & T20I teams going forward.

The tour has been reduced from three series to two: the Test and One-Day International series, taking place from December 26 to January 23, 2022, across four venues. The four-match T20 international series will be rescheduled for a more opportune time in the new year.

First Test will take place from December 26-30 in Centurion; Second Test will take place from January 3-7, 2022, in Johannesburg; Third Test will take place from January 11-15, 2022, in Cape Town. The ODI squad for the SA’s tour is yet to be announced.

India’s Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj.

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