KL Rahul named India captain for South Africa ODIs

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"We are looking at KL Rahul as a three-format player, and he has got good experience of captaincy," Chairman of selectors, Chetan Sharma said in an online press interaction. "He has proved his leadership qualities. That is what all selectors think. When Rohit is not fit, we thought KL is the best one to handle the side. We have good confidence in him, and we are grooming him."

This was supposed to be Rohit's first series as India's ODI captain but he is yet to recover fully from his recurring hamstring injury. With the T20 World Cup and the ODI World Cup coming in two years, the selectors have erred on the side of caution on Rohit's behalf.

"This is the only reason why we have decided to let him work on his rehab, work on his fitness, work on his muscles," Chetan Sharma explained. "Nobody gets injured on purpose. This is precisely why we didn't send him to South Africa because we want him to go back to 100% fitness because there are important events and World Cups coming."

Jasprit Bumrah has been named as the vice-captain for the series; while R Ashwin, who last played an ODI in 2017 has been recalled to the side.

Solid performances in the recently concluded Vijay Hazare trophy have rewarded the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Washington Sundar and Venkatesh Iyer a place in the squad.

From India's previous full-strength ODI squad, the selectors have omitted Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, T Natarajan and Shubman Gill.

Also missing from the list is veteran pacer Mohammad Shami, who has been rested as a part of workload management, while Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel were not considered for selection due to injuries.

The three ODIs will be played on 19, 21 January in Paarl and in Cape Town on 23 January and will part of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Super League.

ODI squad: KL Rahul (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj