A month long break is over. India Cricket Team captain Rohit Sharma and superstar Virat Kohli will return to the squad ahead of the IND vs SA Test series. The star duo will leave for Johannesburg from Mumbai via Dubai. Ahead of the India vs South Africa Test series starting Dec 26, they will play a three-day intra-squad match from De 20.
Along with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin will also travel. Navdeep Saini and Harshit Rana will join them on the same flight for IND vs SA Test series.
This will be the third and final batch of players to leave for South Africa as a record 75 Indian players will be in the rainbow nation.
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma headed to Europe after the heartbreaking loss in the World Cup final. The much-needed break meant both missed out on the T20I and ODI series to focus on the IND vs SA Test series.
IND vs SA Test: Shami doubtful
However, in-form pacer Mohammed Shami remains doubtful for the entire Test series. Shami is recovering from a knee niggle.
Shami is not yet fit and will report the to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) instead of boarding the flight. If he gets NCA’s clearance, only then he would travel to Johannesburg.
However, BCCI has not named a replacement for Shami yet. With 75 players in South Africa, if Shami doesn’t make it in time for the IND vs SA Boxing Day Test, one of the pacers is likely to be added.
India Test squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Mohd. Shami*, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna.
