BCCI announce India squad for South Africa Tests, Rohit Sharma displaces Virat Kohli as ODI captain

The Board of Control for Cricket in India have announced the squad for the three-match Test series against South Africa. While the squad for the ODIs has not been revealed, Rohit Sharma has been confirmed as the ODI skipper. This marks the end of Virat Kohli's captaincy tenure for India in white-ball cricket. Rohit was also named the T20I captain for India after Kohli stepped down from the post.

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Speaking about the Test squad, Ajinkya Rahane has managed to hold on to his spot in the team. However, he has been stripped of his deputyship. Rohit Sharma has been named the vice-captain of the side. Cheteshwar Pujara has also been included in the squad. Both players have been going through an extended lean patch and there were doubts about their place in the squad. Hanuma Vihari has also been included after being sidelined for the home series against New Zealand. Senior players, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant, who were rested from the New Zealand series, have returned to the squad.

BCCI have also named Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla as standby players. Meanwhile, Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, Axar Patel, Rahul Chahar have missed out owing to injuries.

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.

The tour kicks off on December 26 in Centurion.