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Team India has announced an 18-member squad for the South Africa Test series that kicks off on December 26 with the first game being played at SuperSport Park, Centurion. The squad announcement from India comes a day after the Proteas announced their 21-member team for the three-match Test series against the guests which will be a part of the World Test Championship 2021-23.
Notably, Ajinkya Rahane has been replaced for the position of vice-captain by Rohit Sharma, however, Rahane is also in the 18-member team that has Virat Kohli as captain. Meanwhile, BCCI stated that Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, Axar Patel and Rahul Chahar were not available for selection due to their respective injuries. All four are currently undergoing rehabilitation.
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India's complete squad for South Africa tour:
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.
Here is South Africa squad for Test series vs India:
Dean Elgar, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Kagiso Rabada, Sarel Erwee, Beuran Hendricks, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Anrich Nortje, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen. Kyle Verreynne, Marco Jansen, Glenton Stuurman, Prenelan Subrayen, Sisanda Magala, Ryan Rickelton, Duanne Olivier.
It is worth noting that India's tour of South Africa was earlier scheduled to be a three-format contest, however, the recent emergence of Omicron variant in South Africa forced the series to be postponed by a week. Additionally, the three-match T20I series has been excluded from the tour and it will be played later in 2021.
Updated schedule of India's tour of South Africa:
1st Test - December 26-30, 2021 - SuperSport Park, Centurion
2nd Test - January 3-7, 2022 - Wanderers, Johannesburg
3rd Test - January 11-15, 2022 - Newlands, Cape Town
1st ODI - January 19, 2022 - Boland Park, Paarl
2nd ODI - January 21, 2022 - Boland Park, Paarl
3rd ODI - January 23, 2022 - Newlands, Cape Town