"Suspense still continues" - Fans react as Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are rested for white-ball leg of India's South Africa tour

Team India's senior batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli won't feature in the white-ball leg of the Men in Blue's upcoming tour of South Africa.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced squads for the ODI, T20I, and Test series against the Proteas on Thursday, November 30. While the seasoned campaigners won't take part in the limited-overs matches, Sharma will lead the side in the Test series, with Kohli also being a part of the squad.

The Indian board confirmed that the two veteran players had requested to be rested for the three T20Is and as many ODIs. Once the squads were released, several fans took to social media to react to Sharma and Kohli's absence from the white-ball teams.

Here are some of the top reactions:

Many fans were looking forward to seeing Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in action during the three-match T20I series against South Africa. Both players haven't featured in the format since the T20 World Cup in 2022.

It remains to be seen if Kohli and Sharma will make a comeback on the road to the all-important 2024 T20 World Cup. Suryakumar Yadav will lead the T20I team in Sharma's absence, while KL Rahul was named skipper for the three ODIs.

The tour kicks off with the T20I series at Kingsmead in Durban on Thursday, November 30.

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India's squad for South Africa tour

India’s squad for 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, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Mohammed 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, Mohammed 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