Kohli returns to lead India’s ODI team in SA
Captain Virat Kohli will return to lead his country in ODI cricket as India selected a 17-man squad for the series in South Africa, starting in February.
Kohli has not played in the ongoing limited-overs series at home against Sri Lanka as he was rested ahead of the Test series against the Proteas.
Also still missing from India’s ODI squad is spin twins Ravi Ashwin and Ravi Jadeja – the first-choice pair in the Test team.
Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav have continued to impress in white-ball cricket.
India’s chairman of selectors MSK Prasad said: “We keep repeating this. We have been consistent with Chahal and Axar.
“With every game they have been improving a lot. They should be given an extended run since they are doing very well.
“It is a unanimous decision. When we picked these three boys, we wanted to increase the bench strength in the spin department.
“Today, we have five-six quality spinners that are aiming for these slots.”
Also returning to the ODI squad is pacemen Mohammed Shami and Sharduk Thakur while batsman Kedar Yadhav has recovered from injury and is also included.
India ODI squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur