India Announce ODI Squad for South Africa Series; KL Rahul Named Captain

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the squad for the ODI series against South Africa, which will start from November 30. Since Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer are both injured, the selectors went for a new captain. The India vs South Africa ODI series squad took a turn when a former skipper, KL Rahul, has been appointed as the captain.

KL Rahul To Lead India in ODI Series

KL Rahul captain ODI series was highly anticipated because of Iyer and Shubman Gill's injury. He has prior experience as a captain and will handle the team well. KL Rahul captain has performed in the previous series, and this is more like a reward for his hard work. The India ODI squad South Africa 2025 has many interesting changes as well, including the inclusion of Tilak Varma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Ruturaj Gaikwad. Only a few of them might actually make it into the playing XI, but the selection was crucial. Gaikwad scored a half-century and a century in the previous series against South Africa A and looked ready for a comeback into the Indian team. The management will have to make a tough choice between Jaiswal and Gaikwad as an opener since Rohit is already present. Moreover, India's batting attack looks sorted with the presence of KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Rishabh Pant. It will be interesting to see how some of the best ODI batsman in the world will perform throughout the series.

India ODI squad

Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (C) (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel.

Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj to Miss ODI Series Against South Africa

India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj are set to miss the upcoming ODI series against South Africa. The board hasn't given any specific reasons behind their exclusion, but workload management is quite evident in the case of the players. Bumrah missed the ODI series against Australia as well, but was a part of the T20I series. Since the T20I World Cup is coming, the selectors want Bumrah to focus on Test and T20Is in the future.

Moreover, even Hardik Pandya will miss the ODI series against the Proteas as he is recovering from injury. As per BCCI's latest updates, he was at the Centre of Excellence, training hard to return to the stadium. Reports suggest that Pandya might join the Indian team for the 5-match T20I series against South Africa in December. The board wants him to focus on the shortest format of the game due to the World Cup. He is an asset to the team, and everybody has seen his performance in the past, being the best all-rounder in the world. Overall, India's squad looks good with bowlers like Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, and more. The Proteas have been outstanding in the previous white-ball series, so the hosts will have to be careful throughout.