MUMBAI: With Shubman Gill still recovering from his neck injury, KL Rahul was on Sunday named captain of the Indian team for the three upcoming ODIs against South Africa starting Nov 30 in Ranchi. As veteran allrounder Ravindra Jadeja, who missed the ODI series in Australia due to personal reasons, returned to the squad, the national selection committee decided to drop left-arm spinning allrounder Axar Patel while resting pace spearheads Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj.Rahul, who captained India in 12 ODIs between 2022 and 2023, returns to the role after two years. The ODIs will be played on Nov 30 in Ranchi, Dec 3 in Raipur and Dec 6 in Visakhapatnam, before a five-match T20I series starting Dec 9. Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Tilak Varma all made ODI comebacks.
Meanwhile, TOI has learnt that Gill’s injury is not “serious” and unlikely to rule him out for long. Selectors hope the 26-year-old will be fit for the five-match T20I series beginning Dec 9. Gill recently consulted spinal specialist Dr Abhay Nene in Mumbai.Squad: 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.
