India Vs South Africa ODI Series: Rohit To Be Missed, Selection Of Shikhar Good Decision!
On the very first assignment
as the regular One-Day International (ODI) captain for the India’s South Africa
Tour-2021-22 and in the aftermath of the Virat split-captaincy controversy
Rohit Sharma was finally ruled out of the full tour. This comes as a huge
setback for Team India who has been doing well to take a 1-0 lead in the Test
Series with the 3-match ODI Series to start from 19th January 2022. Rohit
had been suffering from a hamstring injury and was earlier ruled out for the
Test Series which led to a lot of speculation about test captain Virat not
playing the ODIs under the leadership of Rohit. As we wrote about Virat Kohli
deciding to play the ODIs in his pre-tour press conference where he dropped a
bombshell involving the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President
Sourav Ganguly and it was not made clear till now who was probably lying with
Ganguly saying the matter would to be sorted out as and when appropriate and
the latter going down with COVID infection subsequently. The Chief Selector Chetan Sarma had given a response that the white-ball captaincy decision was that of
the Selectors’ and that the BCCI was quite shocked when Virat declared his decision
to give up the T20I captaincy after the T20 World Cup.
Now, it is clear that
neither Virat nor Rohit is going to play under each other’s leadership for
whatever reasons be and the Test vice-captain KL Rahul is the automatic choice
as the stand-in captain for the ODI Series. Although the services of Rohit
Sharma will be missed sorely by India the return of Shikhar Dhawan is a positive
development and a good decision by the selectors. He has been a successful opener
for India in the shorter format for the past several years and his injury in
the 2019 World Cup cost India dearly. Yet, he has been continually sidetracked by
the selectors in the recent tournaments even after his good performances in the
IPLs while several rookies like Rituraj Gaikwad, Venkatesh Iyer, Ishan Kishan and
Prasidh Krishna have been included in the India squad based on their IPL performances.
Anyway, the opening pair of in-form KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan is expected to deliver
the goods, and else the two openers, Gaikwad and Ishan, are available as
possible options. The full squad is as below with Jasprit Bumrah appointed Rahul’s
deputy.
India ODI Squad: KL Rahul (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rituraj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Ishan Kishan (opener cum wk), Y Chahal, R Ashwin, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah (vice-captain), Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj.
The comebacks of R Ashwin, Washington Sundar
and Yazuvendra Chahal are sure to make more bowling options available for
India. While Mohammed Shami has been rested Ravidra Jadeja and Axar Patel are
yet to be declared fit. Hardik Pandya and Rahul Chahar have not been selected.
Meanwhile, Quinton de-Kock had done a Dhoni by
retiring from Test cricket suddenly in the middle of a crucial Test Series when
his team is trailing and needs his services as an experienced wicketkeeper cum batsman
the most. He is only 29 and has a long career ahead of him while Dhoni was
around 34 when he dramatically retired in 2014 in the middle of an away Test
series against Australia. Quinton’s decision has shocked all cricketers in
South Africa and elsewhere. It was reported that he was granted paternity leave
by the South Africa cricket board, but his decision to announce retirement from
test cricket was totally unexpected. He has, of course, made himself available
for the white-ball formats. His likely replacements, namely Kyle Verreynne and
Ryan Rickelton, have very little experience in test cricket. The services of the
injured strike pacer Nortje are also in doubt. It seems both teams have
suffered setbacks and how the ODI Series goes is to be only to be seen later
this month.
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