Indian ODI squad for South Africa series announced

The Indian selectors have announced the 17-member squad that will take on South Africa in a six-match ODI series following the three-match Test series early next year.

After skipping the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka, Virat Kohli returns to the ODI side. There were no surprises in the squad named with the selectors opting to go with the strongest team available.

Vice-captain Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane will be the three openers while batsmen Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey and Dinesh Karthik retain their places in the squad. In spite of doing well in the T20I series against Sri Lanka, KL Rahul doesn't find a place in the 17-member squad.

Kedar Jadhav and Shardul Thakur, who missed the ODI and T20I series against Sri Lanka due to injuries, return to the squad in place of Washington Sundar and Siddarth Kaul.

In spite of clearing the Yo-Yo Test, there was no place for both Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh as the duo have been struggling to score in the domestic circuit. Spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja continue to remain on the sidelines as the wrist spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, along with all-rounder Axar Patel retain their places in the side.

Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur complete the pace attack with Hardik Pandya as the back-up.

It is certain that the likes of Ashwin, Jadeja, Rahul and Umesh Yadav might not feature in the Indian ODI side in the near future as the selectors are in favour of having specialized teams for each format.

Squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzi Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami and Kedar Jadhav.