BCCI announce Test squad for South Africa tour; Rohit named ODI captain

Just ahead of the T20 World Cup, Virat Kohli announced he will step down as captain of the Indian side in the shortest format of the game. Fast forward the timelines by a month and the BCCI announced that Rohit Sharma will be taking over the reins of the Indian cricket team in the One-day format too.

BCCI announced on Wednesday that Rohit Sharma will be the captain of the Indian cricket team both in the shortest format of the game and in the 50-over edition too. In another announcement, Ajinkya Rahane has been removed from Test vice-captaincy.

Rohit has also been shouldered with the role of vice-captaincy in the longest format of the game and will be the deputy to Virat Kohli on the South Africa tour. The communique from BCCI stated, “The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr. Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI and T20I teams going forward.”

Kohli was heard quoting earlier, “I've been immensely proud of how the team has played. Now I think it's time for the next lot to stake this team forward. Obviously, Rohit is here and he's overlooking things for a while now.”

Along with these important announcements, the BCCI has also declared the squads for the Tests in the upcoming South Africa tour. Hanuma Vihari has been recalled to the side while Ishant Sharma was retained despite a loss of form in his recent affairs.

Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, Axar Patel and Rahul Chahar couldn’t be taken into consideration because of the rehabilitation that they are going through after copping injuries in the New Zealand series.

Indian squad: Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma(vc), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant(wk), Wriddhiman Saha(wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj.