Indian star player Rohit Sharma has announced as the new captain for ODIs replacing Virat Kohli.
This decision of BCCI comes ahead of India tour of South Africa. BCCI announced on the Twitter account that the All-India Senior Selection Committee has decided to give the leadership in Rohit’s hands.
The tour will have three Test matches followed by three ODIs all leading by Rohit Sharma. The three-Test matches scheduled to start December 17, however, after considering the risks and health of the players on priority because of the ‘Omicron’ COVID-19 variant. The BCCI decided to postpone the tour to start from December 26, 2021, till January 15, 2022.
The announcement comes on the day the board announced India’s squad for the three Test series starting December 26. Several floating reports in the media suggested that the change in guard was inevitable, before the board decided to end the suspense with a tweet.
Along with that, Hit-man is to shoulder the responsibilities of Vice-captain in Test matches starting now, which was earlier with Ajinkya Rahane.
Last month, Rohit handed over the T20I captaincy as Virat Kohli stepped down after ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
It is unknown whether it is because Kohli is being rested or whether it was a strategical move. After the Test skipper had announced he will be giving up his captaincy for the T20 national team. And Royal Challengers Bangalore captaincy as well to concentrate more on ODI and Test as well as his performances.
The ODI squadhas not yet announced by the BCCI.
Rohit has less than a year to prepare for the T20 World Cup in Australia next year. Which will followed by the 50-over World Cup in India in 2023. With the Rohit Sharma-Rahul Dravid partnership taking over, the two upcoming ICC events promise to be the biggest challenge. For Team India especially after their poor show in the T20 World Cup. The first time it had happened at an ICC event in eight years.
India’s Test Squad for the tour of South Africa
Virat Kohli (Captain), 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, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj