Rajat Patidar, the Madhya Pradesh batter, and Bengal speedster Mukesh Kumar have earned maiden India call-up for the three-match ODI series versus South Africa.
With the T20 World Cup-bound cricketers set to leave for Australia even before the ODI series is to begin, only Mohammed Siraj and Shreyas Iyer - who are set to join the squad as back-up after the series, were selected from the Australia-bound players.
As a result, Shikhar Dhawan will continue to lead in ODIs, with Shreyas as his deputy. Patidar has had a phenomenal domestic season across formats and the Indian Premier League while Mukesh has been a revelation for the last three years.
Barring the two newcomers, the selectors have stuck to the same squad that featured in India’s ODI series in the West Indies. While Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson have both been included as wicketkeepers, it will be interesting to see if Shahbaz Ahmed and Rahul Tripathi are handed a debut during the series.
The squad:
Shikhar Dhawan (Capt.), Shreyas Iyer (Vice-capt.), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Rahul Tripathi, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Mohd. Siraj, Deepak Chahar.
The fixtures: Oct. 6 (Lucknow), Oct. 9 (Ranchi), Oct. 11 (New Delhi)
