India’s white-ball squad for South Africa tour likely to be announced today

After the completion of the ongoing five-match T20I series against Australia, India will travel to South Africa for three T20Is, three ODIs, and two Tests. The series kicks off with the first T20I on December 10 in Durban.

As per reports, the white-ball teams for the tour are set to be announced on November 30 while the Test squad is expected to be announced next month. A lot of new faces are set to get opportunities as senior players are likely to be rested for the white-ball leg of the tour. Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya, who is the first-choice leader of the T20 team in the absence of Rohit Sharma, is ruled out of the series as he is recuperating from an ankle injury suffered during the ODI World Cup 2023.

Suryakumar Yadav is currently leading India in the T20Is against Australia and he could once again be given the responsibility versus Aiden Markram and Co. Meanwhile, there is an outside chance the Rohit could lead the team in the T20I series, with the BCCI looking to convince him to take the job with an eye on the 2024 T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA in June.

KL Rahul could lead the team in the ODIs against South Africa. Incidentally, the Karnataka batter led India the last time they played an ODI series against the Proteas in 2022. Apart from Rohit and Kohli, Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja are also expected to miss the white-ball matches.

Meanwhile, the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rinku Singh, Ravi Bishnoi and Mukesh Kumar have impressed so far against the Aussies and could be considered for the Proteas tour. The ‘Men in Blue’ are leading 2-1 with the fourth game scheduled to take place on Friday, December 1 at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur.