India pick 18-man squad for South Africa Tests

Mumbai/ New Delhi: The Indian cricket team on Wednesday announced their 18-member squad for the upcoming 3-match Test series against South Africa starting from December 26.

The Test series will form a part of the new cycle of the ICC World Test Championship.

While Virat Kohli will lead the team, Rohit Sharma has been named as the new vice-captain of the Test team. However, under-pressure Ajinkya Rahane retained his place in the squad.

Meanwhile, the Chetan Sharma-led selection committee also announced Rohit Sharma will lead India's ODI & T20I teams going forward.

"The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI & T20I teams

going forward," the BCCI said in a statement.

The statement also mentioned that Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, Axar Patel, Rahul Chahar were not available for selection due to injuries and are currently undergoing rehabilitation.

All three key players may take some months to be completely fit and selectors are dealing with some big questions ahead of the South Africa tour.

Jadeja, who has often played as India's first-choice spinner outside the subcontinent, was ruled out of the second Test of the New Zealand series in Mumbai. In its statement before the start of the second Test, the BCCI had given swelling in the forearm as the reason for Jadeja missing the game.

"All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja suffered a right forearm injury during the 1st Test match in Kanpur. After undergoing scans, he was diagnosed with a swelling on his forearm. He has been advised rest and is thus ruled out of the 2nd Test in Mumbai," the statement said.

According to a report in Espncricinfo, the all-rounder could be out of action for a long period. If he misses the South Africa tour, it will be his second injury-enforced layoff this year. He had earlier broken his left thumb during the Test series in Australia in January and had to miss the final Test in Brisbane as well as the entire home series against England.

Meanwhile, the exact nature of Axar's problem could not be ascertained, however, it is understood that it's a stress-related injury.

It is learnt that Gill's shin injury has resurfaced and selectors are not sure about his inclusion in the squad for the upcoming tour. He had also missed the Test series in England due to the same problem and suffered pain again during the Mumbai Test.

The youngster who played the two Tests against New Zealand at home recently, sat out a few sessions of play in the second Test after first getting hit in the arm and then the finger. He was taken for a precautionary scan and didn't take the field. (IANS)

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.