Rahul to lead in ODIs against South Africa in Gill's absence; Pant back

India batter KL Rahul will captain the side in the three ODIs against South Africa starting on November 30. Rahul steps in with regular captain Shubman Gill still recovering from the neck injury he suffered during the first Test in Kolkata earlier this month.

Rishabh Pant was back in ODI mix as the second wicketkeeper, having last played the format in August 2024. Jasprit Bumrah was rested having featured in all four home Tests this season, the T20 Asia Cup as well as the ODIs in Australia over the past two months. Shreyas Iyer too wasn't in the squad as he continues to recover from a lacerated spleen.

With Shreyas unavailable, a middle-order spot opened up for Tilak Varma, the left-hand batter, who featured in a recent one-day series against South Africa A in Rajkot.

Tilak has so far played four ODIs with modest returns, but has established himself as a regular in the T20I set-up. He could compete with Pant for a spot in the middle order that also has Virat Kohli, Rahul as well as Ravindra Jadeja, who was rested for the Australia ODIs. Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar are the other allrounders in the mix. There was no spot for Axar Patel.

In Gill's absence, Yashasvi Jaiswal is expected to open the batting with Rohit Sharma. Ruturaj Gaikwad, who was in sparkling form for India A during the one-dayers against South Africa A is the reserve opener. Gaikwad, who last played in an ODI two years ago, made scores of 117, 68* and 25 during India A's 2-1 series win.

Mohammed Siraj has been rested, presumably to manage his workloads after he featured in each of the four home Tests, with Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna and Harshit Rana as the frontline pace bowlers. The squad also comprises Dhruv Jurel as the back-up middle order batter.

Hardik Pandya, meanwhile, is undergoing the final phase of his rehab for a quadriceps injury at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. He has been named in Baroda's squad for the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s that start on November 26, and could play the first three rounds of matches before the selectors take a call on him for the T20I series against South Africa. Hardik, who was part of the Champions Trophy wining squad in March, missed India's previous ODI assignment due to the injury he picked up during September's Asia Cup.

The three ODIs against South Africa will be played on November 30 in Ranchi, December 3 in Raipur and on December 6 in Visakhapatnam.

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